Which to use
“ville” and “vole” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,353
- “ville” frequency rank
- #45,158
- “vole” frequency rank
- 69511
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ville | vole |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A Vietnamese village. | Any of a large number of species of small rodents of the tribes Arvicolini, Ellobiusini, Clethrionomyini, Pliomyini, Phenacomyini and Prometheomyini. |
Where the eye mixes ville and vole
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ville runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against vole's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: ville vs vole
A purely visual mix-up. ville (/ˈvɪl/) and vole (/vəʊl/) 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 69511, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ville is recorded at frequency rank #24,353, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈvɪl/. 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 69511, this pair ranks #54,247 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ville vs vole
Shared letters: elv. Private to "ville": i. Private to "vole": o.
"ville" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "vole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ville" for "vole" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ville" or "vole"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "ville" and "vole" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ville" 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 #54,247 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ville" 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 #54,247 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.