Which to use
“devour” is a verb and “devout” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,239
- “devour” frequency rank
- #18,539
- “devout” frequency rank
- 41778
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devour | devout |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To eat quickly, greedily, hungrily, or ravenously. | Devoted to religion or to religious feelings and duties; pious; extremely religious; godly. |
Where the eye mixes devour and devout
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses devour with devout
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: devour is /dɪˈvaʊə(ɹ)/ while devout is /dɪˈvaʊt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “devour” becomes t in “devout”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41778, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
devour is recorded at frequency rank #23,239, classified as averb, pronounced /dɪˈvaʊə(ɹ)/. devout is at rank #18,539, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dɪˈvaʊt/.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 41778, this pair ranks #255,271 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of devour vs devout
Shared letters: deouv. Private to "devour": r. Private to "devout": t.
"devour" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "devout" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "devour" and "devout" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "devour" vs "devout" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "devour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devout" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #255,271 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devour" and "devout" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devour vs dour". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #255,271 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.