dépitévsdeviceTell them apart

Quick tell: dépité is a adjective, device is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dépité” is an adjective and “device” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,482
“dépité” frequency rank
#43,381
“device” frequency rank
78863
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dépité device
Definition Qui éprouve du dépit. Dispositif, appareil.

Where the eye mixes dépité and device

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

6 ch
dépité
6 ch
device

Why the eye confuses dépité with device

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dépité is \de.pi.te\ while device is \dɪˈvaɪs\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78863, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dépité is recorded at frequency rank #35,482, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.pi.te\. device is at rank #43,381, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dɪˈvaɪs\.

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 78863, this pair ranks #24,691 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dépité vs device

Shared letters: di. Private to "dépité": pté. Private to "device": cev.

"dépité" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "device" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deviceddevice · deivce · devcie · devicce · deviec · devvice · dveice · edvice

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dépité" and "device" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dépité" is an adjective and "device" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dépité" or "device"?
"dépité" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,482 in our French list, against #43,381 for "device". 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 "dépité" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "device" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,691 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dépité" and "device" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "device vs devins". 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 #24,691 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