Which to use
“dévolu” is an adjective and “devos” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,249
- “dévolu” frequency rank
- #40,210
- “devos” frequency rank
- 62459
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dévolu | devos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Transféré d’une personne à une autre, qui est échu à quelqu’un. | Futur de devi. |
Where the eye mixes dévolu and devos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. dévolu runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against devos's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: dévolu vs devos
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dévolu is \de.vɔ.ly\ while devos is \ˈde.vos\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62459, 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\. devos is at rank #40,210, tagged as averb, pronounced \ˈde.vos\.
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 62459, this pair ranks #87,012 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dévolu vs devos
Shared letters: dov. Private to "dévolu": lué. Private to "devos": es.
"dévolu" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "devos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- devos ← ddevos · deovs · devoss · devso · devvos · dveos · edvos
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "dévolu" and "devos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "dévolu" or "devos"?
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 "dévolu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "devos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #87,012 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dévolu" and "devos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devins vs devos". 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 #87,012 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.