evilvsÉvryConfusable pair

Quick tell: evil is a adjective, Évry is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“evil” is an adjective and “Évry” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,132
“evil” frequency rank
#44,279
“Évry” frequency rank
61411
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature evil Évry
Definition Malin, scélérat, diabolique. Commune française, située dans le département de l’Yonne.

Where the eye mixes evil and Évry

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

4 ch
evil
4 ch
Évry

Look-alike desk: evil vs Évry

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: evil is \ˈiː.vəl\ while Évry is \e.vʁi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61411, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

evil is recorded at frequency rank #17,132, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈiː.vəl\. Évry is at rank #44,279, tagged as aname, pronounced \e.vʁi\.

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 61411, this pair ranks #92,448 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of evil vs Évry

Shared letters: v. Private to "evil": eil. Private to "Évry": ryé.

"evil" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "Évry" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • evileivl · evill · evli · evvil

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "evil" and "Évry" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "evil" is an adjective and "Évry" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "evil" or "Évry" show up more?
"evil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,132 in our French list, against #44,279 for "Évry". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "evil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Évry" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #92,448 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "evil" and "Évry" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ely vs Évry". 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 #92,448 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