Which to use
“désolé” and “dévolu” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,390
- “désolé” frequency rank
- #22,249
- “dévolu” frequency rank
- 23639
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | désolé | dévolu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Désert ; ravagé ; triste. | Transféré d’une personne à une autre, qui est échu à quelqu’un. |
Where the eye mixes désolé and dévolu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. désolé and dévolu follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses désolé with dévolu
A purely visual mix-up. désolé (\de.zɔ.le\) and dévolu (\de.vɔ.ly\) 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 23639, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
désolé is recorded at frequency rank #1,390, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.zɔ.le\. dévolu is at rank #22,249, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.vɔ.ly\.
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 23639, this pair ranks #351,297 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of désolé vs dévolu
Shared letters: dloé. Private to "désolé": s. Private to "dévolu": uv.
"désolé" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "dévolu" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "désolé" and "dévolu" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "désolé" vs "dévolu" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "désolé" and "dévolu" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "désolé" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dévolu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #351,297 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "désolé" and "dévolu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dévolu vs dévolus". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #351,297 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.