Which to use
“devoir” and “dévorer” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #843
- “devoir” frequency rank
- #17,692
- “dévorer” frequency rank
- 18535
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | devoir | dévorer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Avoir à payer une somme d’argent, à rendre ou à donner quelque chose que ce soit. | Manger avec voracité et rapidité (le sujet désigne un animal carnassier). |
Where the eye mixes devoir and dévorer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between devoir and dévorer
A purely visual mix-up. devoir (\də.vwaʁ\) and dévorer (\de.vɔ.ʁe\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18535, 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\. dévorer is at rank #17,692, tagged as averb, pronounced \de.vɔ.ʁe\.
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 18535, this pair ranks #377,820 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of devoir vs dévorer
Shared letters: deorv. Private to "devoir": i. Private to "dévorer": é.
"devoir" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "dévorer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- devoir ← ddevoir · deovir · devior · devoirr · devori · devvoir · dveoir · edvoir
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "devoir" and "dévorer" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "devoir" or "dévorer" show up more?
What to do next
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 "dévorer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #377,820 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "devoir" and "dévorer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dévorent vs dévorer". 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 #377,820 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.