dévievsdoveWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: dévie is a verb, dove is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dévie” is a verb and “dove” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,008
“dévie” frequency rank
#35,471
“dove” frequency rank
70479
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dévie dove
Definition Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dévier. Douve.

Letter map: dévie vs dove

Shared letters muted; letters that set dévie and dove apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. dévie runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against dove's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
dévie
4 ch
dove

Grammar separator: dévie vs dove

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: dévie is averb and doveanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70479, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dévie is recorded at frequency rank #35,008, classified as averb, pronounced \de.vi\. dove is at rank #35,471, tagged as anoun.

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 70479, this pair ranks #51,184 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dévie vs dove

Shared letters: dev. Private to "dévie": ié. Private to "dove": o.

"dévie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "dove" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dove ← ddove · doev · dovve · dvoe · odve

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "dévie" for "dove" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dévie" is a verb and "dove" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dévie" or "dove"?
"dévie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,008 in our French list, against #35,471 for "dove". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "dévie" vs "dove" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dévie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dove" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #51,184 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dévie" and "dove" 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 #51,184 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