devvsdevisWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dev is a adjective, devis is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dev” is an adjective and “devis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,608
“dev” frequency rank
#13,353
“devis” frequency rank
28961
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dev devis
Definition Forme mutée de tev par adoucissement (t → d). Menus propos, entretien familier.

Where the eye mixes dev and devis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
dev
5 ch
devis

Visual trap between dev and devis

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dev is \ˈdew\ while devis is \də.vi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “dev” sits inside “devis”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dev is recorded at frequency rank #15,608, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈdew\. 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 28961, this pair ranks #319,590 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dev vs devis

Shared letters: dev. Private to "dev": -. Private to "devis": is.

"dev" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "devis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dev" and "devis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dev" is an adjective and "devis" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "dev" or "devis" show up more?
"devis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,353 in our French list, against #15,608 for "dev". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "dev" 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 #319,590 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dev" and "devis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "DCI vs dev". 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 #319,590 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