déliervsdéviéeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#44,997
“délier” frequency rank
#45,005
“déviée” frequency rank
90002
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature délier déviée
Definition Dégager de ce qui lie. Participe passé féminin singulier de dévier.

Where the eye mixes délier and déviée

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

6 ch
délier
6 ch
déviée

Look-alike desk: délier vs déviée

A purely visual mix-up. délier (\de.lje\) and déviée (\de.vje\) 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 90002, 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\. déviée is at rank #45,005, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.vje\.

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 90002, this pair ranks #5,224 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of délier vs déviée

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

"délier" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "déviée" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "délier" for "déviée" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.lje\ versus \de.vje\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "délier" or "déviée" show up more?
"délier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,997 in our French list, against #45,005 for "déviée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "délier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "déviée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,224 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "délier" and "déviée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déviée vs devins". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #5,224 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