devivsdevidoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: devi is a verb, devido is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#47,301
“devi” frequency rank
#563
“devido” frequency rank
47864
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature devi devido
Definition dever, ter obrigação de, ter que que se deve

Where the eye mixes devi and devido

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
devi
6 ch
devido

Look-alike desk: devi vs devido

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: devi is /ˈde.vi/ while devido is /dɨ.ˈvi.du/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “devi” sits inside “devido”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47864, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

devi is recorded at frequency rank #47,301, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈde.vi/. devido is at rank #563, tagged as anadj, pronounced /dɨ.ˈvi.du/.

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 47864, this pair ranks #17,344 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of devi vs devido

Shared letters: deiv. Private to "devi": -. Private to "devido": o.

"devi" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "devido" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deviddevi · deiv · devvi · dvei · edvi
  • devidoddevido · deivdo · devdio · deviddo · deviod · devvido · dveido · edvido

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "devi" and "devido" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "devi" is a verb and "devido" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "devi" or "devido"?
"devido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #563 in our Portuguese list, against #47,301 for "devi". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "devi" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "devido" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,344 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "devi" and "devido" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "devi vs device". 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 #17,344 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