viciovsvirilWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: vicio is a noun, viril is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vicio” is a noun and “viril” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,938
“vicio” frequency rank
#41,134
“viril” frequency rank
49072
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vicio viril
Definition Hábito pernicioso o disfuncional del carácter Propio de o relativo a los varones

Where the eye mixes vicio and viril

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. vicio (CVCVV) and viril (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
vicio
5 ch
viril

Visual trap between vicio and viril

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vicio is [ˈbisjo] while viril is [biˈɾil]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49072, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vicio is recorded at frequency rank #7,938, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbisjo]. viril is at rank #41,134, tagged as anadj, pronounced [biˈɾil].

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 49072, this pair ranks #110,874 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vicio vs viril

Shared letters: iv. Private to "vicio": co. Private to "viril": lr.

"vicio" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "viril" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vicio ← bicio · ivcio · vciio · viccio · vicoi · viico · visio · vvicio
  • viril ← biril · ivril · viirl · virill · virli · virril · vriil · vviril

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vicio" for "viril" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vicio" is a noun and "viril" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "vicio" or "viril" show up more?
"vicio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,938 in our Spanish list, against #41,134 for "viril". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vicio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "viril" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #110,874 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vicio" and "viril" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Vira vs viril". 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 #110,874 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list