devait

\də.vɛ\

/\də.vɛ\/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“devait” has 8 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #871. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#871
frequency rank, French
5,307
“D” headwords
8
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de devoir.

Corpus desk

Index FR-devait · devait · French

devait · rank #871 · 8 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #871
  • LEN-LONG 6 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 8 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 5,307
  • PHOTO-FINISH derniers

Nearest frequency peer: derniers (-1 rank slots)

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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « devait »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « devait » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

devait vs devis
67% similar
devait vs devin
67% similar
devait vs devil
67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for devait
PropertyValue
Headworddevait
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\də.vɛ\
Letters6
Frequency rank#871
Misspellings tracked8
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « devait »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.devaitse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « derniers » (#870), « entendre » (#872), « courant » (#869). Parmi 5,307 lemmes en « D », « devait » est au #871. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 8 spelling variants around devait (IPA \də.vɛ\), averb. Corpus frequency is #871 among 5,307 “D” headwords. Dominant gloss: "Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de devoir.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for devait, with forms such as "ddevait", "deavit", and "devaitt". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "devis", "devin", "devil", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct French form is devait, spelled D-E-V-A-I-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de devoir.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how devait appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Puisqu’il fallait qu’elle suât, elle devait boire beaucoup.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ddevait
  • deavit
  • devaitt
  • devati
  • deviat
  • devvait
  • dveait
  • edvait

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of devait - 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.

ddevait1deavit2devaitt1devati2deviat2devvait1dveait2edvait2
Edit distance from "devait"

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "devait"?
"devait" is spelled D-E-V-A-I-T. The IPA pronunciation is \də.vɛ\.
What does "devait" mean?
As a verb, "devait" means: Troisième personne du singulier de l’imparfait de devoir.
What words are commonly confused with "devait"?
"devait" is commonly confused with "devis", "devin", "devil". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "devait"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "devait" is \də.vɛ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "devait" come from?
"devait" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "devait", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

finale#876joueur#879éviter#862longue#880

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).

voyage8 variantssamedi8 variantsstyle8 variantsterrain8 variants

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list