volevsVosWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: vole is a noun, Vos is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vole” is a noun and “Vos” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,158
“vole” frequency rank
#33,077
“Vos” frequency rank
78235
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vole Vos
Definition Any of a large number of species of small rodents of the tribes Arvicolini, Ellobiusini, Clethrionomyini, Pliomyini, Phenacomyini and Prometheomyini. A surname from Dutch.

Letter map: vole vs Vos

Shared letters muted; letters that set vole and Vos apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. vole runs 4 letters (CVCV) against Vos's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
vole
3 ch
Vos

Grammar separator: vole vs Vos

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: vole is anoun and Vosaname. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78235, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vole is recorded at frequency rank #45,158, classified as anoun, pronounced /vəʊl/. Vos is at rank #33,077, tagged as aname.

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 78235, this pair ranks #25,116 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vole vs Vos

Shared letters: ov. Private to "vole": el. Private to "Vos": s.

"vole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Vos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vole ← ovle · vloe · voel · volle · vvole

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vole" for "Vos" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vole" is a noun and "Vos" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "vole" or "Vos"?
"Vos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,077 in our English list, against #45,158 for "vole". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "vole" vs "Vos" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Vos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,116 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vole" and "Vos" 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 #25,116 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