decidevsdévieWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#30,555
“decide” frequency rank
#35,008
“dévie” frequency rank
65563
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature decide dévie
Definition Décider. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dévier.

Where the eye mixes decide and dévie

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

6 ch
decide
5 ch
dévie

Look-alike desk: decide vs dévie

A purely visual mix-up. decide (\dɪˈsɑɪd\) and dévie (\de.vi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65563, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

decide is recorded at frequency rank #30,555, classified as averb, pronounced \dɪˈsɑɪd\. dévie is at rank #35,008, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.vi\.

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 65563, this pair ranks #71,776 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of decide vs dévie

Shared letters: dei. Private to "decide": c. Private to "dévie": .

"decide" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "dévie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • decidedceide · ddecide · deccide · decdie · decidde · decied · deicde · edcide

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "decide" and "dévie" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dɪˈsɑɪd\ versus \de.vi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "decide" vs "dévie" - which ranks higher?
"decide" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,555 in our French list, against #35,008 for "dévie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "decide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dévie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,776 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "decide" and "dévie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs dévie". 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 #71,776 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