vilavsviseTell them apart

Which to use

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

#40,956
“vila” frequency rank
#37,761
“vise” frequency rank
78717
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vila vise
Definition A type of female nature spirit in Slavic mythology, similar in some ways to a fairy or nymph. An instrument consisting of two jaws, closing by a screw, lever, cam, or the like, for holding work, as in filing.

Where the eye mixes vila and vise

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. vila and vise follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
vila
4 ch
vise

Why the eye confuses vila with vise

A purely visual mix-up. vila (/ˈviːlə/) and vise (/vaɪs/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78717, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vila is recorded at frequency rank #40,956, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈviːlə/. vise is at rank #37,761, tagged as anoun, pronounced /vaɪs/.

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 78717, this pair ranks #23,930 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vila vs vise

Shared letters: iv. Private to "vila": al. Private to "vise": es.

"vila" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "vise" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vila ← ivla · vlia · vvila
  • vise ← visse · vsie · vvise

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vila" and "vise" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈviːlə/ versus /vaɪs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "vila" vs "vise" - which ranks higher?
"vise" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,761 in our English list, against #40,956 for "vila". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vila" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vise" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,930 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vila" and "vise" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vaca vs vila". 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 #23,930 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