vile
/vaɪ(ə)l/adjective, noun
vile is spelled V-I-L-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “vial vs vile” about 260 times a month (Google, United States). As an adjective, vile means “Morally low; base; despicable” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in vile?
| Letters | 4: V-I-L-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 4.2 times per million words; the 12,578th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is vile?
Vile appears 4.2 times per million words in written English, the 12,578th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce vile?
- /vaɪ(ə)l/
Vile has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-vial.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-vile.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with vile
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: vial (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with vile?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as vile.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: live, evil, veil, vlei.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of vile
- viler comparative
- more vile comparative
- vilest superlative
- most vile superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does vile mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Morally low; base; despicable.
vile accusation
- 2
Causing physical or mental repulsion; horrid; disgusting.
I glimpsed a vile squid-like creature in the depths.
noun
- 1
That which is vile; vileness.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Vile in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | vil |
| German | abscheulich, gemein, schnöde |
| Portuguese | vil , torpe, abjeto, abjecto |
| Spanish | vil |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does vile come from?
From Middle English vile, vyle, vyl, from Anglo-Norman ville, Old French vil, vile, from Latin vīlis.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).