Which to use
“désolés” and “dévolus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,146
- “désolés” frequency rank
- #46,134
- “dévolus” frequency rank
- 74280
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | désolés | dévolus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Masculin pluriel de l’adjectif désolé. | Masculin pluriel de dévolu. |
Where the eye mixes désolés and dévolus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. désolés and dévolus follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: désolés vs dévolus
A purely visual mix-up. désolés (\de.zɔ.le\) and dévolus (\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 74280, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
désolés is recorded at frequency rank #28,146, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.zɔ.le\. dévolus is at rank #46,134, 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 74280, this pair ranks #37,635 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of désolés vs dévolus
Shared letters: dlosé. Private to "désolés": -. Private to "dévolus": uv.
"désolés" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "dévolus" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "désolés" and "dévolus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "désolés" or "dévolus"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "désolés" and "dévolus" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "désolés" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dévolus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #37,635 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "désolés" and "dévolus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dévolues vs dévolus". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #37,635 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.