déviervsdevilsWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#22,248
“dévier” frequency rank
#24,930
“devils” frequency rank
47178
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dévier devils
Definition Se détourner ; être détourné de sa direction. Pluriel de devil.

Where the eye mixes dévier and devils

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

6 ch
dévier
6 ch
devils

Look-alike desk: dévier vs devils

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dévier is \de.vje\ while devils is \ˈdɛv.əlz\. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47178, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dévier is recorded at frequency rank #22,248, classified as averb, pronounced \de.vje\. devils is at rank #24,930, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈdɛv.əlz\.

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 47178, this pair ranks #188,947 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dévier vs devils

Shared letters: deiv. Private to "dévier": . Private to "devils": ls.

"dévier" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "devils" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devilsddevils · deivls · devills · devilss · devisl · devlis · devvils · dveils

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dévier" and "devils" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dévier" is a verb and "devils" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "dévier" or "devils"?
"dévier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,248 in our French list, against #24,930 for "devils". 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 "dévier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devils" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #188,947 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dévier" and "devils" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devils vs devins". 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 #188,947 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