Which to use
“devil” is a name and “devils” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,561
- “devil” frequency rank
- #24,930
- “devils” frequency rank
- 55491
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devil | devils |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Le Diable, Satan. | Pluriel de devil. |
Where the eye mixes devil and devils
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: devil vs devils
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: devil is \ˈdɛvəl\ while devils is \ˈdɛv.əlz\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “devil” sits inside “devils”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55491, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
devil is recorded at frequency rank #30,561, classified as aname, pronounced \ˈdɛvəl\. 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 55491, this pair ranks #127,137 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of devil vs devils
Shared letters: deilv. Private to "devil": -. Private to "devils": s.
"devil" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "devils" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "devil" for "devils" ever safe?
Frequency check: "devil" vs "devils" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "devil" and "devils" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "devil" 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 #127,137 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devil" and "devils" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "denim vs devil". 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 #127,137 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.