Which to use
“dérive” and “devise” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,052
- “dérive” frequency rank
- #7,050
- “devise” frequency rank
- 14102
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dérive | devise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Écart, déviation entre le cap effectivement suivi par un navire ou un aéroplane et le cap initialement fixé. | Figure accompagnée d’une phrase exprimant d’une manière allégorique et brève quelque pensée, quelque sentiment. |
Where the eye mixes dérive and devise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dérive and devise follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between dérive and devise
A purely visual mix-up. dérive (\de.ʁiv\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14102, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dérive is recorded at frequency rank #7,052, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.ʁiv\. 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 14102, this pair ranks #398,188 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dérive vs devise
Shared letters: deiv. Private to "dérive": ré. Private to "devise": s.
"dérive" · 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
Can "dérive" and "devise" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "dérive" or "devise"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "dérive" 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 #398,188 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dérive" 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 #398,188 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.