Which to use
“deuil” is a noun and “dévie” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,652
- “deuil” frequency rank
- #35,008
- “dévie” frequency rank
- 40660
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | deuil | dévie |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Affliction, douleur qu’on éprouve lors du décès de quelqu’un, ou suite à une autre perte importante. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dévier. |
Where the eye mixes deuil and dévie
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: deuil vs dévie
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: deuil is \dœj\ while dévie is \de.vi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40660, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
deuil is recorded at frequency rank #5,652, classified as anoun, pronounced \dœj\. dévie is at rank #35,008, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.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 40660, this pair ranks #238,910 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of deuil vs dévie
Shared letters: dei. Private to "deuil": lu. Private to "dévie": vé.
"deuil" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC · "dévie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- deuil ← ddeuil · deiul · deuill · deuli · dueil · eduil
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "deuil" for "dévie" ever safe?
Frequency check: "deuil" vs "dévie" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "deuil" and "dévie" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "deuil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dévie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #238,910 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "deuil" and "dévie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dèche vs dévie". 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 #238,910 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.