Which to use
“dévolue” and “dévolus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,775
- “dévolue” frequency rank
- #46,134
- “dévolus” frequency rank
- 84909
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dévolue | dévolus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de dévolu. | Masculin pluriel de dévolu. |
Same sound, different letters: dévolue vs dévolus
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. dévolue (CVCVCVV) and dévolus (CVCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Same sound, different spelling - dévolue / dévolus
This is the hard kind. dévolue 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 a single letter - e in “dévolue” becomes s in “dévolus”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84909, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dévolue is recorded at frequency rank #38,775, 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 84909, this pair ranks #12,181 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of dévolue vs dévolus
Shared letters: dlouvé. Private to "dévolue": e. Private to "dévolus": s.
"dévolue" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV · "dévolus" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "dévolue" and "dévolus" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "dévolue" or "dévolus" show up more?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "dévolue" / "dévolus". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "dévolue" 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 #12,181 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dévolue" and "dévolus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dévolues vs dévolus". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #12,181 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.