débordantvsdévorantTell them apart

Which to use

“débordant” and “dévorant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,571
“débordant” frequency rank
#45,006
“dévorant” frequency rank
75577
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature débordant dévorant
Definition Qui déborde, qui sort de ses limites habituelles ou obligées. Qui dévore.

Letter map: débordant vs dévorant

Shared letters muted; letters that set débordant and dévorant apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. débordant runs 9 letters (CVCVCCVCC) against dévorant's 8 (CVCVCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
débordant
8 ch
dévorant

Pair insight - débordant / dévorant

débordant and dévorant are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75577, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

débordant is recorded at frequency rank #30,571, classified as anadj. dévorant is at rank #45,006, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.vɔ.ʁɑ̃\.

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 75577, this pair ranks #33,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of débordant vs dévorant

Shared letters: adnorté. Private to "débordant": b. Private to "dévorant": v.

"débordant" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCCVCC  ·  "dévorant" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "débordant" and "dévorant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "débordant" vs "dévorant" - which ranks higher?
"débordant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,571 in our French list, against #45,006 for "dévorant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "débordant" and "dévorant". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "débordant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dévorant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "débordant" and "dévorant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décorent vs dévorant". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #33,657 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list