dévoluevsdévouéeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#38,775
“dévolue” frequency rank
#25,296
“dévouée” frequency rank
64071
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dévolue dévouée
Definition Féminin singulier de dévolu. Féminin singulier de dévoué.

Where the eye mixes dévolue and dévouée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. dévolue (CVCVCVV) and dévouée (CVCVVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
dévolue
7 ch
dévouée

Why the eye confuses dévolue with dévouée

A purely visual mix-up. dévolue (\de.vɔ.ly\) and dévouée (\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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64071, 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\. dévouée is at rank #25,296, 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 64071, this pair ranks #78,828 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dévolue vs dévouée

Shared letters: deouvé. Private to "dévolue": l. Private to "dévouée": -.

"dévolue" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "dévouée" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dévolue" and "dévouée" be used interchangeably?
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 "dévouée" - which ranks higher?
"dévouée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,296 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.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "dévolue" and "dévouée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dévolue" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dévouée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #78,828 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dévolue" and "dévouée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dévolue vs dévolus". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #78,828 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