virilvsvirusWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#41,134
“viril” frequency rank
#2,961
“virus” frequency rank
44095
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature viril virus
Definition Propio de o relativo a los varones Agente infeccioso compuesto de ácido nucleico rodeado por proteínas, y que sólo se reproduce dentro de sus célula hospedadoras, usando los orgánulos de éstas.

Where the eye mixes viril and virus

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
viril
5 ch
virus

Visual trap between viril and virus

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: viril is [biˈɾil] while virus is [ˈbiɾus]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44095, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

viril is recorded at frequency rank #41,134, classified as anadj, pronounced [biˈɾil]. virus is at rank #2,961, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈbiɾus].

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 44095, this pair ranks #138,927 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of viril vs virus

Shared letters: irv. Private to "viril": l. Private to "virus": su.

"viril" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "virus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • virilbiril · ivril · viirl · virill · virli · virril · vriil · vviril
  • virusbirus · ivrus · virrus · virsu · viruss · viurs · vrius · vvirus

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "viril" for "virus" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "viril" is an adjective and "virus" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "viril" vs "virus" - which ranks higher?
"virus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,961 in our Spanish list, against #41,134 for "viril". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "viril" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "virus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #138,927 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "viril" and "virus" 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 #138,927 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