Which to use
“devine” and “devise” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,485
- “devine” frequency rank
- #7,050
- “devise” frequency rank
- 17535
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devine | devise |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Variante de devineresse. | Figure accompagnée d’une phrase exprimant d’une manière allégorique et brève quelque pensée, quelque sentiment. |
Where the eye mixes devine and devise
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: devine vs devise
A purely visual mix-up. devine (\də.vin\) and devise (\də.viz\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - n in “devine” becomes s in “devise”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17535, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
devine is recorded at frequency rank #10,485, classified as anoun, pronounced \də.vin\. devise is at rank #7,050, tagged as anoun, pronounced \də.viz\.
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 17535, this pair ranks #382,679 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of devine vs devise
Shared letters: deiv. Private to "devine": n. Private to "devise": s.
"devine" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "devise" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "devine" for "devise" ever safe?
Frequency check: "devine" vs "devise" - which ranks higher?
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 "devine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #382,679 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devine" and "devise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devine 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 #382,679 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.