vilavsvilleWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“vila” and “ville” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,600
“vila” frequency rank
#32,847
“ville” frequency rank
81447
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vila ville
Definition das Dorf, die Ortschaft, der Marktflecken Stadt, Ort

Where the eye mixes vila and ville

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. vila runs 4 letters (CVCV) against ville's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
vila
5 ch
ville

Visual trap between vila and ville

A purely visual mix-up. vila ([ˈbiɫə]) and ville ([vil]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81447, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vila is recorded at frequency rank #48,600, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbiɫə]. ville is at rank #32,847, tagged as anoun, pronounced [vil].

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 81447, this pair ranks #175,648 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vila vs ville

Shared letters: ilv. Private to "vila": a. Private to "ville": e.

"vila" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "ville" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vila ← ivla · vial · vlia · vvila
  • ville ← ivlle · vilel · vlile · vville

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vila" and "ville" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈbiɫə] versus [vil]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "vila" or "ville" show up more?
"ville" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,847 in our German list, against #48,600 for "vila". 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 "vila" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ville" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #175,648 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vila" and "ville" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vila vs Vulva". 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 #175,648 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list