Which to use
“décorent” is a verb and “dévorant” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,459
- “décorent” frequency rank
- #45,006
- “dévorant” frequency rank
- 93465
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | décorent | dévorant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel de l’indicatif présent de décorer. | Qui dévore. |
Where the eye mixes décorent and dévorant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. décorent and dévorant follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses décorent with dévorant
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: décorent is \de.kɔʁ\ while dévorant is \de.vɔ.ʁɑ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 93465, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
décorent is recorded at frequency rank #48,459, classified as averb, pronounced \de.kɔʁ\. 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 93465, this pair ranks #2,258 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of décorent vs dévorant
Shared letters: dnorté. Private to "décorent": ce. Private to "dévorant": av.
"décorent" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC · "dévorant" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "décorent" and "dévorant" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "décorent" or "dévorant" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "décorent" 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 #2,258 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "décorent" and "dévorant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décorent vs déforment". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #2,258 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.