videvsvideoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#31,399
“vide” frequency rank
#363
“video” frequency rank
31762
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vide video
Definition divide (separate into parts, cleave asunder) Television, a television show, or a movie.

Where the eye mixes vide and video

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

4 ch
vide
5 ch
video

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vide is /vaɪd/ while video is /ˈvɪd.i.əʊ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “vide” sits inside “video”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31762, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vide is recorded at frequency rank #31,399, classified as averb, pronounced /vaɪd/. video is at rank #363, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈvɪd.i.əʊ/.

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 31762, this pair ranks #343,455 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vide vs video

Shared letters: deiv. Private to "vide": -. Private to "video": o.

"vide" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "video" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • videivde · vdie · vidde · vied · vvide
  • videoivdeo · vdieo · viddeo · vidoe · viedo · vvideo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vide" and "video" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vide" is a verb and "video" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "vide" or "video"?
"video" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #363 in our English list, against #31,399 for "vide". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list