décidéevsdéviéeTell them apart

Quick tell: décidée is a adjective, déviée is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“décidée” is an adjective and “déviée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,142
“décidée” frequency rank
#45,005
“déviée” frequency rank
55147
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature décidée déviée
Definition Féminin singulier de décidé. Participe passé féminin singulier de dévier.

Where the eye mixes décidée and déviée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. décidée runs 7 letters (CVCVCVV) against déviée's 6 (CVCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
décidée
6 ch
déviée

Look-alike desk: décidée vs déviée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: décidée is \de.si.de\ while déviée is \de.vje\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55147, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

décidée is recorded at frequency rank #10,142, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.si.de\. 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 55147, this pair ranks #129,384 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of décidée vs déviée

Shared letters: deié. Private to "décidée": c. Private to "déviée": v.

"décidée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "déviée" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "décidée" and "déviée" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "décidée" is an adjective and "déviée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "décidée" or "déviée" show up more?
"décidée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,142 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "décidée" 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 #129,384 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "décidée" and "déviée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déviée vs devins". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #129,384 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