deboutvsdévouéConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#2,770
“debout” frequency rank
#17,942
“dévoué” frequency rank
20712
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature debout dévoué
Definition Qualifie un vent, de face, quand il est en sens contraire au mouvement de l’aéronef, du navire, etc. Qui est disposé à tout faire pour être utile ou agréable à quelqu’un.

Where the eye mixes debout and dévoué

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
debout
6 ch
dévoué

Visual trap between debout and dévoué

A purely visual mix-up. debout (\də.bu\) and dévoué (\de.vwe\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

debout is recorded at frequency rank #2,770, classified as anadj, pronounced \də.bu\. dévoué is at rank #17,942, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.vwe\.

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 20712, this pair ranks #366,877 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of debout vs dévoué

Shared letters: dou. Private to "debout": bet. Private to "dévoué": .

"debout" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "dévoué" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deboutdbeout · ddebout · debbout · debotu · deboutt · debuot · deobut · edbout

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "debout" and "dévoué" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\də.bu\ versus \de.vwe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "debout" or "dévoué"?
"debout" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,770 in our French list, against #17,942 for "dévoué". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "debout" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dévoué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #366,877 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "debout" and "dévoué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Devaux vs dévoué". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #366,877 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