Which to use
“devoir” and “dévore” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #843
- “devoir” frequency rank
- #22,838
- “dévore” frequency rank
- 23681
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devoir | dévore |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Avoir à payer une somme d’argent, à rendre ou à donner quelque chose que ce soit. | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de dévorer. |
Where the eye mixes devoir and dévore
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between devoir and dévore
A purely visual mix-up. devoir (\də.vwaʁ\) and dévore (\de.vɔʁ\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23681, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
devoir is recorded at frequency rank #843, classified as averb, pronounced \də.vwaʁ\. dévore is at rank #22,838, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.vɔʁ\.
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 23681, this pair ranks #351,055 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of devoir vs dévore
Shared letters: deorv. Private to "devoir": i. Private to "dévore": é.
"devoir" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "dévore" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- devoir ← ddevoir · deovir · devior · devoirr · devori · devvoir · dveoir · edvoir
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "devoir" and "dévore" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "devoir" or "dévore" show up more?
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 "devoir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dévore" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #351,055 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devoir" and "dévore" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Delors vs dévore". 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 #351,055 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.