déroulantvsdévoilantWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#20,994
“déroulant” frequency rank
#29,337
“dévoilant” frequency rank
50331
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature déroulant dévoilant
Definition Qui se déroule. Qui illustre, révèle un fait, un comportement.

Where the eye mixes déroulant and dévoilant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. déroulant and dévoilant follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
déroulant
9 ch
dévoilant

Look-alike desk: déroulant vs dévoilant

A purely visual mix-up. déroulant (\de.ʁu.lɑ̃\) and dévoilant (\de.vwa.lɑ̃\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50331, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

déroulant is recorded at frequency rank #20,994, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.ʁu.lɑ̃\. dévoilant is at rank #29,337, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.vwa.lɑ̃\.

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 50331, this pair ranks #163,473 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of déroulant vs dévoilant

Shared letters: adlnoté. Private to "déroulant": ru. Private to "dévoilant": iv.

"déroulant" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCVCC  ·  "dévoilant" · 9 letters · shape CVCVVCVCC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "déroulant" for "dévoilant" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\de.ʁu.lɑ̃\ versus \de.vwa.lɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "déroulant" or "dévoilant" show up more?
"déroulant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,994 in our French list, against #29,337 for "dévoilant". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "déroulant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dévoilant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #163,473 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "déroulant" and "dévoilant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dévoilant vs dévorant". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #163,473 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