Which to use
“défilé” and “devise” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,498
- “défilé” frequency rank
- #7,050
- “devise” frequency rank
- 13548
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | défilé | devise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Passage étroit où il ne peut passer que peu de personnes de front. | Figure accompagnée d’une phrase exprimant d’une manière allégorique et brève quelque pensée, quelque sentiment. |
Where the eye mixes défilé and devise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses défilé with devise
A purely visual mix-up. défilé (\de.fi.le\) and devise (\də.viz\) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13548, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
défilé is recorded at frequency rank #6,498, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.fi.le\. devise is at rank #7,050, tagged as anoun, pronounced \də.viz\.
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 13548, this pair ranks #400,547 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of défilé vs devise
Shared letters: di. Private to "défilé": flé. Private to "devise": esv.
"défilé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "devise" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- devise ← ddevise · deivse · devies · devisse · devsie · devvise · dveise · edvise
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "défilé" and "devise" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "défilé" or "devise" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "défilé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #400,547 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "défilé" and "devise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devins vs devise". 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 #400,547 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.