divinevsdraineTell them apart

Quick tell: divine is a adjective, draine is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“divine” is an adjective and “draine” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,286
“divine” frequency rank
#44,427
“draine” frequency rank
50713
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature divine draine
Definition Féminin singulier de divin. Grive draine.

Where the eye mixes divine and draine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. divine (CVCVCV) and draine (CCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
divine
6 ch
draine

Visual trap between divine and draine

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: divine is \di.vin\ while draine is \dʁɛn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50713, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

divine is recorded at frequency rank #6,286, classified as anadj, pronounced \di.vin\. draine is at rank #44,427, tagged as anoun, pronounced \dʁɛn\.

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 50713, this pair ranks #160,538 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of divine vs draine

Shared letters: dein. Private to "divine": v. Private to "draine": ar.

"divine" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "draine" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • divine ← ddivine · diivne · divien · divinne · divnie · divvine · dviine · idvine
  • draine ← darine · ddraine · draien · drainne · dranie · driane · drraine · rdaine

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "divine" and "draine" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "divine" is an adjective and "draine" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "divine" or "draine" show up more?
"divine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,286 in our French list, against #44,427 for "draine". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "divine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "draine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #160,538 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "divine" and "draine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "damné vs draine". 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 #160,538 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