denréevsdéviéeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: denrée is a noun, déviée is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“denrée” is a noun and “déviée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,348
“denrée” frequency rank
#45,005
“déviée” frequency rank
81353
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature denrée déviée
Definition Tout ce qui se vend pour la nourriture des hommes ou des animaux. Participe passé féminin singulier de dévier.

Where the eye mixes denrée and déviée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
denrée
6 ch
déviée

Why the eye confuses denrée with déviée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: denrée is \dɑ̃.ʁe\ while déviée is \de.vje\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81353, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

denrée is recorded at frequency rank #36,348, classified as anoun, pronounced \dɑ̃.ʁe\. 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 81353, this pair ranks #18,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of denrée vs déviée

Shared letters: deé. Private to "denrée": nr. Private to "déviée": iv.

"denrée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "déviée" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "denrée" for "déviée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "denrée" is a noun and "déviée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "denrée" or "déviée" show up more?
"denrée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,348 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.

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 "denrée" 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 #18,928 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "denrée" and "déviée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déviée vs devins". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #18,928 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