Which to use
“deviner” and “drainer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,420
- “deviner” frequency rank
- #38,758
- “drainer” frequency rank
- 46178
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | deviner | drainer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Prédire ce qui doit arriver, découvrir, par des sortilèges, ce qui est caché. | Débarrasser un terrain de l’excès d’humidité au moyen de drains ou de canaux de drainage. |
Where the eye mixes deviner and drainer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses deviner with drainer
A purely visual mix-up. deviner (\də.vi.ne\) and drainer (\dʁe.ne\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46178, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
deviner is recorded at frequency rank #7,420, classified as averb, pronounced \də.vi.ne\. drainer is at rank #38,758, tagged as averb, pronounced \dʁe.ne\.
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 46178, this pair ranks #196,977 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of deviner vs drainer
Shared letters: deinr. Private to "deviner": v. Private to "drainer": a.
"deviner" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "drainer" · 7 letters · shape CCVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "deviner" and "drainer" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "deviner" or "drainer"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "deviner" and "drainer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "deviner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "drainer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #196,977 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "deviner" and "drainer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "draine vs drainer". 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 #196,977 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.