désirvsdevisConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#2,670
“désir” frequency rank
#13,353
“devis” frequency rank
16023
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature désir devis
Definition Action de désirer ; résultat de cette action. Menus propos, entretien familier.

Where the eye mixes désir and devis

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

5 ch
désir
5 ch
devis

Why the eye confuses désir with devis

A purely visual mix-up. désir (\de.ziʁ\) and devis (\də.vi\) 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 16023, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

désir is recorded at frequency rank #2,670, classified as anoun, pronounced \de.ziʁ\. devis is at rank #13,353, tagged as anoun, pronounced \də.vi\.

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 16023, this pair ranks #389,737 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of désir vs devis

Shared letters: dis. Private to "désir": . Private to "devis": ev.

"désir" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "devis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devisddevis · deivs · deviss · devsi · devvis · dveis · edvis

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "désir" and "devis" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\de.ziʁ\ versus \də.vi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "désir" vs "devis" - which ranks higher?
"désir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,670 in our French list, against #13,353 for "devis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "désir" and "devis" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "désir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #389,737 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "désir" and "devis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "denim vs devis". 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 #389,737 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