dévolusvsdevosConfusable pair

Quick tell: dévolus is a adjective, devos is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“dévolus” is an adjective and “devos” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,134
“dévolus” frequency rank
#40,210
“devos” frequency rank
86344
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dévolus devos
Definition Masculin pluriel de dévolu. Futur de devi.

Where the eye mixes dévolus and devos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. dévolus runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against devos's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
dévolus
5 ch
devos

Look-alike desk: dévolus vs devos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dévolus is \de.vɔ.ly\ while devos is \ˈde.vos\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 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 86344, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dévolus is recorded at frequency rank #46,134, 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 86344, this pair ranks #9,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of dévolus vs devos

Shared letters: dosv. Private to "dévolus": lué. Private to "devos": e.

"dévolus" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "devos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • devos ← ddevos · deovs · devoss · devso · devvos · dveos · edvos

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dévolus" and "devos" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "dévolus" is an adjective and "devos" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "dévolus" vs "devos" - which ranks higher?
"devos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,210 in our French list, against #46,134 for "dévolus". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dévolus" 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 #9,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dévolus" and "devos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dévolues vs dévolus". 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 #9,844 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