devour
/dɪˈvaʊə(ɹ)/
"devour" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“devour” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #23,239 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #23,239
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 11
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To eat quickly, greedily, hungrily, or ravenously.
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 | devour |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /dɪˈvaʊə(ɹ)/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #23,239 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 11 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “devour” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for devour is 6 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /dɪˈvaʊə(ɹ)/. Corpus data places it at rank #23,239 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for devour, with forms such as "ddevour", "deovur", and "devoru". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 11 confusable-pair relationships, "dour", "devout", "devo", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: Inherited from Middle English devouren, from Old French devorer (Modern French dévorer), from Latin dēvorō, from vorō. The correct English form is devour, spelled D-E-V-O-U-R.
Definition
- 1To eat quickly, greedily, hungrily, or ravenously.
- 2To rapidly destroy, engulf, or lay waste.
- 3To take in avidly with the intellect or with one's gaze.
- 4To absorb or engross the mind fully, especially in a destructive manner.
- 5Synonym of eat: to be very good at something; to slay.
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English devouren, from Old French devorer (Modern French dévorer), from Latin dēvorō, from vorō.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddevour,deovur,devoru,devourr,devuor,devvour,dveour,edvour
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of devour - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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 “devour”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is D-E-V-O-U-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /dɪˈvaʊə(ɹ)/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “dour” - see the side-by-side comparison. devour vs dour
- 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.