devil
/ˈdɛvəl/
"devil" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“devil” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,296 in English word frequency and used as a proper noun.
- #4,296
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The chief devil; Satan.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | devil |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Proper noun |
| IPA | /ˈdɛvəl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #4,296 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “devil” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for devil is 5 letters long, classified as a proper noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈdɛvəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,296 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The chief devil; Satan.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for devil, with forms such as "ddevil", "deivl", and "devill". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "devs", "devo", "Devon", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *dwísder. Ancient Greek διά (diá) Ancient Greek δια- (dia-) Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH-der. Proto-Hellenic *gʷəlnō Ancient Greek βᾰ́λλω (bắllō) Ancient Greek διαβάλλω (diabállō) Ancient Greek διά… The correct English form is devil, spelled D-E-V-I-L.
Definition
- 1The chief devil; Satan.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *dwísder. Ancient Greek διά (diá) Ancient Greek δια- (dia-) Proto-Indo-European *gʷelH-der. Proto-Hellenic *gʷəlnō Ancient Greek βᾰ́λλω (bắllō) Ancient Greek διαβάλλω (diabállō) Ancient Greek διάβολος (diábolos)bor. Latin diabolusbor. Proto-West Germanic *diubul Old English dēofol Middle English devel English devil From Middle English devil, devel, deovel, from Old English dēofol, from Proto-West Germanic *diubul, from Latin diabolus, ultimately from Ancient Greek διάβολος (diábolos, “false accuser, slanderer”), also as "Satan" (in Jewish/Christian usage, translating Biblical Hebrew שָׂטָן (śātān)), from διαβάλλω (diabállō, “to slander”), literally “to throw across”, from διά (diá, “through, across”) + βάλλω (bállō, “throw”). The Old English word was probably adopted under influence of Latin diabolus (itself from the Greek). Other Germanic languages adopted the word independently: compare Saterland Frisian Düüwel (“devil”), West Frisian duvel (“devil”), Dutch duivel, duvel (“devil”), German Low German Düvel (“devil”), German Teufel (“devil”), Bavarian Teifl (“devil”), Danish djævel (“devil”), Swedish djävul (“devil”) (older: djefvul, Old Swedish diævul, Old Norse djǫfull). Doublet of diable, diablo, and diabolus.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddevil,deivl,devill,devli,devvil,dveil,edvil
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of devil - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “devil”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-E-V-I-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈdɛvəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “devs” - see the side-by-side comparison. devil vs devs
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.