Which to use
“déféré” and “dévore” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,775
- “déféré” frequency rank
- #22,838
- “dévore” frequency rank
- 60613
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | déféré | dévore |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Participe passé masculin singulier de déférer. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dévorer. |
Where the eye mixes déféré and dévore
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. déféré and dévore follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses déféré with dévore
A purely visual mix-up. déféré (\de.fe.ʁe\) and dévore (\de.vɔʁ\) 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 60613, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
déféré is recorded at frequency rank #37,775, classified as averb, pronounced \de.fe.ʁe\. dévore is at rank #22,838, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.vɔʁ\.
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 60613, this pair ranks #96,726 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of déféré vs dévore
Shared letters: dré. Private to "déféré": f. Private to "dévore": eov.
"déféré" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "dévore" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "déféré" and "dévore" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "déféré" or "dévore" show up more?
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 "déféré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dévore" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #96,726 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "déféré" and "dévore" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "décèle vs déféré". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #96,726 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.