virile
/ˈvɪɹ.əl/
"virile" is a 6-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“virile” is an uncommon English word, ranked #52,088 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #52,088
- frequency rank, English
- 6
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Manly; having characteristics associated with being male, such as strength; exhibiting masculine traits to an exaggerated degree such as strength, forcefulness or vigor.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | virile |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈvɪɹ.əl/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #52,088 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “virile” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for virile is 6 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈvɪɹ.əl/. Corpus data places it at rank #52,088 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
virile has no tracked misspelling variants, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French viril, from Latin virīlis, from vir (“man”, “male human”) + -īlis (suffix forming adjectives from nouns). The correct English form is virile, spelled V-I-R-I-L-E.
Definition
- 1Manly; having characteristics associated with being male, such as strength; exhibiting masculine traits to an exaggerated degree such as strength, forcefulness or vigor.
- 2Possessing high sexual drive and capacity for sexual intercourse.
- 3Pertaining to a grammatical gender used in plurals of some Slavic languages, corresponding to the personal masculine animate nouns.
Etymology
From Middle French viril, from Latin virīlis, from vir (“man”, “male human”) + -īlis (suffix forming adjectives from nouns).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “virile”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is V-I-R-I-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈvɪɹ.əl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.