déliervsdévieWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#44,997
“délier” frequency rank
#35,008
“dévie” frequency rank
80005
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature délier dévie
Definition Dégager de ce qui lie. Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dévier.

Where the eye mixes délier and dévie

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
délier
5 ch
dévie

Visual trap between délier and dévie

A purely visual mix-up. délier (\de.lje\) and dévie (\de.vi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80005, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

délier is recorded at frequency rank #44,997, classified as averb, pronounced \de.lje\. dévie is at rank #35,008, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.vi\.

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 80005, this pair ranks #21,972 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of délier vs dévie

Shared letters: deié. Private to "délier": lr. Private to "dévie": v.

"délier" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "dévie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "délier" for "dévie" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.lje\ versus \de.vi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "délier" vs "dévie" - which ranks higher?
"dévie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,008 in our French list, against #44,997 for "délier". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "délier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dévie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,972 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "délier" and "dévie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "délier vs déviée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #21,972 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