devil
/ˈdɛvəl/
"devil" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“devil” has 7 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #4,296. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #4,296
- frequency rank, English
- 3,470
- “D” headwords
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The chief devil; Satan.
Corpus desk
Index EN-devil · devil · English
devil · rank #4,296 · 7 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #4,296
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 7 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,470
- PHOTO-FINISH deeper
Nearest frequency peer: deeper (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “devil”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- craft
craft
95,708 corpus weight
- darkness
darkness
95,707 corpus weight
- deeper
deeper
95,706 corpus weight
- devil
devil
95,705 corpus weight
- edit
edit
95,704 corpus weight
- enable
enable
95,703 corpus weight
What this shows “devil” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “devil”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 7 spelling variants around devil (IPA /ˈdɛvəl/), aproper noun. Corpus frequency is #4,296 among 3,470 “D” headwords. Dominant gloss: "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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "devil", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (7 here; floor ≥5).