Which to use
“devs” is a noun and “dress” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #33,614
- “devs” frequency rank
- #1,789
- “dress” frequency rank
- 35403
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devs | dress |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of dev | To put clothes (or, formerly, armour) on (oneself or someone, a doll, a mannequin, etc.); to clothe. |
Where the eye mixes devs and dress
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. devs runs 4 letters (CVCC) against dress's 5 (CCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: devs vs dress
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: devs is /dɛvz/ while dress is /dɹes/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35403, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
devs is recorded at frequency rank #33,614, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɛvz/. dress is at rank #1,789, tagged as averb, pronounced /dɹes/.
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 35403, this pair ranks #312,279 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of devs vs dress
Shared letters: des. Private to "devs": v. Private to "dress": r.
"devs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "dress" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "devs" for "dress" ever safe?
Which is more common, "devs" or "dress"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "devs" and "dress" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "devs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dress" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #312,279 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devs" and "dress" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "derp vs devs". 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 #312,279 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.