dévoluevsdévouéWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“dévolue” and “dévoué” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#38,775
“dévolue” frequency rank
#17,942
“dévoué” frequency rank
56717
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dévolue dévoué
Definition Féminin singulier de dévolu. Qui est disposé à tout faire pour être utile ou agréable à quelqu’un.

Where the eye mixes dévolue and dévoué

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. dévolue runs 7 letters (CVCVCVV) against dévoué's 6 (CVCVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
dévolue
6 ch
dévoué

Why the eye confuses dévolue with dévoué

A purely visual mix-up. dévolue (\de.vɔ.ly\) and dévoué (\de.vwe\) 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 56717, 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\. dévoué is at rank #17,942, tagged as anadj, pronounced \de.vwe\.

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 56717, this pair ranks #119,369 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dévolue vs dévoué

Shared letters: douvé. Private to "dévolue": el. Private to "dévoué": -.

"dévolue" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "dévoué" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dévolue" and "dévoué" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\de.vɔ.ly\ versus \de.vwe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "dévolue" vs "dévoué" - which ranks higher?
"dévoué" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,942 in our French list, against #38,775 for "dévolue". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dévolue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dévoué" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #119,369 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dévolue" and "dévoué" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dévolue vs dévolus". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #119,369 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list