veiledvsvileTell them apart

Which to use

“veiled” and “vile” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#20,810
“veiled” frequency rank
#12,713
“vile” frequency rank
33523
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature veiled vile
Definition Covered by a veil. Morally low; base; despicable.

Letter map: veiled vs vile

Shared letters muted; letters that set veiled and vile apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. veiled runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against vile's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
veiled
4 ch
vile

Corpus notes: veiled and vile

veiled and vile are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33523, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

veiled is recorded at frequency rank #20,810, classified as anadj. vile is at rank #12,713, tagged as anadj, pronounced /vaɪ(ə)l/.

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 33523, this pair ranks #328,690 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of veiled vs vile

Shared letters: eilv. Private to "veiled": d. Private to "vile": -.

"veiled" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "vile" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • veiled ← eviled · veield · veilde · veiledd · veilled · velied · vieled · vveiled
  • vile ← ivle · vlie · vvile

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "veiled" and "vile" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "veiled" vs "vile" - which ranks higher?
"vile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,713 in our English list, against #20,810 for "veiled". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "veiled" vs "vile" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "veiled" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #328,690 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "veiled" and "vile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "veiled vs voided". 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 #328,690 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list