violovsvirgoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: violo is a verb, virgo is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“violo” is a verb and “virgo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,326
“violo” frequency rank
#19,600
“virgo” frequency rank
62926
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature violo virgo
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de violar. Que no ha tenido relaciones sexuales

Where the eye mixes violo and virgo

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

5 ch
violo
5 ch
virgo

Visual trap between violo and virgo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: violo is [ˈbjolo] while virgo is [ˈbiɾɣ̞o]. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

violo is recorded at frequency rank #43,326, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈbjolo]. virgo is at rank #19,600, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈbiɾɣ̞o].

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 62926, this pair ranks #50,414 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of violo vs virgo

Shared letters: iov. Private to "violo": l. Private to "virgo": gr.

"violo" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "virgo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • violo ← biolo · ivolo · viloo · viollo · viool · voilo · vviolo
  • virgo ← birgo · ivrgo · virggo · virog · virrgo · vrigo · vvirgo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "violo" and "virgo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "violo" is a verb and "virgo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "violo" or "virgo" show up more?
"virgo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,600 in our Spanish list, against #43,326 for "violo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "violo" and "virgo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "violo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "virgo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,414 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "violo" and "virgo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "violo vs viso". 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 #50,414 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