Which to use
“dévolu” and “dévolus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,249
- “dévolu” frequency rank
- #46,134
- “dévolus” frequency rank
- 68383
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dévolu | dévolus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Transféré d’une personne à une autre, qui est échu à quelqu’un. | Masculin pluriel de dévolu. |
Same sound, different letters: dévolu vs dévolus
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. dévolu runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against dévolus's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: dévolu vs dévolus
This is the hard kind. dévolu and dévolus are pronounced identically (\de.vɔ.ly\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “dévolu” sits inside “dévolus”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68383, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dévolu is recorded at frequency rank #22,249, classified as anadj, pronounced \de.vɔ.ly\. dévolus is at rank #46,134, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.vɔ.ly\.
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 68383, this pair ranks #59,403 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dévolu vs dévolus
Shared letters: dlouvé. Private to "dévolu": -. Private to "dévolus": s.
"dévolu" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "dévolus" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dévolu" for "dévolus" ever safe?
Frequency check: "dévolu" vs "dévolus" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
"dévolu" and "dévolus" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "dévolu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "dévolus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #59,403 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dévolu" and "dévolus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dévolues vs dévolus". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #59,403 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.