Vial or vile?
vial is a noun meaning “A glass or plastic vessel or bottle, especially a small tube-shaped bottle used…”; vile is an adjective meaning “Morally low; base; despicable”. Use vial as a noun and vile as an adjective (vile is also a noun: “That which is vile; vileness”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) vile is about 3.3 times as common as vial.
What is the difference between vial and vile?
| vial | vile | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, verb | adjective, noun |
| Meaning | A glass or plastic vessel or bottle, especially a small tube-shaped bottle used to store medicine, perfume or other chemicals To keep or put (something, especially a liquid) in, or as if in, a vial (noun sense) | Morally low; base; despicable Causing physical or mental repulsion; horrid; disgusting That which is vile; vileness |
| Example | none recorded | vile accusation |
| Forms | vials | viler, vilest |
| Pronunciation | /ˈvaɪəl/ /ˈvaɪl/ /ˈvɑj(ə)l/ | /vaɪ(ə)l/ |
| In writing | 1.3 times per million words | 4.2 times per million words |
Sources: vial and vile in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of vial and vile
vial
- 1
A glass or plastic vessel or bottle, especially a small tube-shaped bottle used to store medicine, perfume or other chemicals
- 2
To keep or put (something, especially a liquid) in, or as if in, a vial (noun sense)
vile
- 1
Morally low; base; despicable
vile accusation
- 2
That which is vile; vileness
- 3
Causing physical or mental repulsion; horrid; disgusting
I glimpsed a vile squid-like creature in the depths
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, vial or vile?
vial appears 1.3 times per million words; vile 4.2 times per million words.
vial 1.3 times per million wordsvile 4.2 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search vial vs vile?
“vial vs vile” is searched about 260 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“vile vs vial”, “vial or vile”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.