Which to use
“vide” is a verb and “vole” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,399
- “vide” frequency rank
- #45,158
- “vole” frequency rank
- 76557
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vide | vole |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | divide (separate into parts, cleave asunder) | Any of a large number of species of small rodents of the tribes Arvicolini, Ellobiusini, Clethrionomyini, Pliomyini, Phenacomyini and Prometheomyini. |
Where the eye mixes vide and vole
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. vide and vole follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: vide vs vole
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vide is /vaɪd/ while vole is /vəʊl/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76557, 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/. vole is at rank #45,158, tagged as anoun, pronounced /vəʊl/.
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 76557, this pair ranks #29,772 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of vide vs vole
Shared letters: ev. Private to "vide": di. Private to "vole": lo.
"vide" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "vole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "vide" and "vole" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "vide" or "vole" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "vide" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vole" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #29,772 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vide" and "vole" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vel vs vole". 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 #29,772 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.