Which to use
“désastre” is a noun and “dévastée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,101
- “désastre” frequency rank
- #24,203
- “dévastée” frequency rank
- 32304
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | désastre | dévastée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Événement funeste ; grand malheur ; les effets qui en résultent. | Féminin singulier de dévasté. |
Where the eye mixes désastre and dévastée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: désastre vs dévastée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: désastre is \de.zastʁ\ while dévastée is \de.vas.te\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32304, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
désastre is recorded at frequency rank #8,101, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.zastʁ\. dévastée is at rank #24,203, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.vas.te\.
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 32304, this pair ranks #298,124 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of désastre vs dévastée
Shared letters: adesté. Private to "désastre": r. Private to "dévastée": v.
"désastre" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCCV · "dévastée" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "désastre" and "dévastée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "désastre" or "dévastée"?
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 "désastre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dévastée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #298,124 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "désastre" and "dévastée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dévastée vs dévastées". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #298,124 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.