deusvsdeveConfusable pair

Quick tell: deus is a noun, deve is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“deus” is a noun and “deve” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#128
“deus” frequency rank
#182
“deve” frequency rank
310
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deus deve
Definition numa religião, ser sobrenatural de poderes sobre-humanos terceira pessoa do singular do presente do indicativo do verbo dever

Letter map: deus vs deve

Shared letters muted; letters that set deus and deve apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
deus
4 ch
deve

Grammar separator: deus vs deve

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: deus is anoun and deveaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deus is recorded at frequency rank #128, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈdews/. deve is at rank #182, tagged as averb.

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 310, this pair ranks #75,329 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of deus vs deve

Shared letters: de. Private to "deus": su. Private to "deve": v.

"deus" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "deve" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deusddeus · desu · deuss · dues · edus
  • deveddeve · deev · devve · dvee · edve

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "deus" and "deve" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deus" is a noun and "deve" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "deus" or "deve" show up more?
"deus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #128 in our Portuguese list, against #182 for "deve". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "deus" and "deve". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "deus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "deve" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #75,329 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deus" and "deve" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deve vs devi". 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 #75,329 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list