Which to use
“vigor” and “vigour” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,079
- “vigor” frequency rank
- #34,339
- “vigour” frequency rank
- 62418
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vigor | vigour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Alternative form of vigour. | Active strength or force of body or mind; a capacity for exertion, physically, intellectually, or morally; energy. |
Where the eye mixes vigor and vigour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. vigor runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against vigour's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between vigor and vigour
A purely visual mix-up. vigor (/ˈvɪɡɚ/) and vigour (/ˈvɪɡə/) 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 62418, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vigor is recorded at frequency rank #28,079, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈvɪɡɚ/. vigour is at rank #34,339, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈvɪɡə/.
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 62418, this pair ranks #88,626 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of vigor vs vigour
Shared letters: giorv. Private to "vigor": -. Private to "vigour": u.
"vigor" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "vigour" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "vigor" for "vigour" ever safe?
Frequency check: "vigor" vs "vigour" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "vigor" and "vigour" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "vigor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vigour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #88,626 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vigor" and "vigour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vigor vs Vinod". 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 #88,626 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.