découlervsdévoilerConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#35,908
“découler” frequency rank
#9,160
“dévoiler” frequency rank
45068
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature découler dévoiler
Definition Couler peu à peu et de suite. Découvrir ce qui était couvert d’un voile.

Where the eye mixes découler and dévoiler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. découler and dévoiler follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
découler
8 ch
dévoiler

Visual trap between découler and dévoiler

A purely visual mix-up. découler (\de.ku.le\) and dévoiler (\de.vwa.le\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45068, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

découler is recorded at frequency rank #35,908, classified as averb, pronounced \de.ku.le\. dévoiler is at rank #9,160, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.vwa.le\.

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 45068, this pair ranks #205,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of découler vs dévoiler

Shared letters: deloré. Private to "découler": cu. Private to "dévoiler": iv.

"découler" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC  ·  "dévoiler" · 8 letters · shape CVCVVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "découler" and "dévoiler" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.ku.le\ versus \de.vwa.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "découler" vs "dévoiler" - which ranks higher?
"dévoiler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,160 in our French list, against #35,908 for "découler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "découler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dévoiler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #205,657 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "découler" and "dévoiler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "découler vs dérouter". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #205,657 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