decidevsdéviéeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#30,555
“decide” frequency rank
#45,005
“déviée” frequency rank
75560
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature decide déviée
Definition Décider. Participe passé féminin singulier de dévier.

Where the eye mixes decide and déviée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. decide (CVCVCV) and déviée (CVCVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
decide
6 ch
déviée

Visual trap between decide and déviée

A purely visual mix-up. decide (\dɪˈsɑɪd\) and déviée (\de.vje\) 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 75560, 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\. déviée is at rank #45,005, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.vje\.

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 75560, this pair ranks #33,702 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of decide vs déviée

Shared letters: dei. Private to "decide": c. Private to "déviée": vé.

"decide" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "déviée" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • decide ← dceide · ddecide · deccide · decdie · decidde · decied · deicde · edcide

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "decide" and "déviée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\dɪˈsɑɪd\ versus \de.vje\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "decide" or "déviée"?
"decide" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,555 in our French list, against #45,005 for "déviée". 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 "déviée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,702 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "decide" and "déviée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déviée vs devins". 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 #33,702 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