ville

\vil\

/\vil\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“ville” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #182) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#182
frequency rank, French
2,061
“V” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Assemblage ordonné d'un nombre assez considérable de maisons disposées par rues, et limitées parfois par une enceinte.

Corpus desk

Index FR-ville · ville · French

ville · rank #182 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-CORE #182
  • LEN-MID 5 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,061
  • PHOTO-FINISH ta

Nearest frequency peer: ta (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « ville »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « ville » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

ville vs vite
60% similar
ville vs vive
60% similar
ville vs viol
60% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for ville
PropertyValue
Headwordville
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\vil\
Letters5
Frequency rank#182
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « ville »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).villese place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « ta » (#181), « jours » (#183), « pourquoi » (#180). Parmi 2,061 lemmes en « V », « ville » est au #182. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for ville is neighbouring look-alikes ("vite", "vive", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \vil\. Frequency #182 among 2,061 “V” headwords. 7 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for ville, with forms such as "ivlle", "vilel", and "vlile". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "vite", "vive", "viol", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct French form is ville, spelled V-I-L-L-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Assemblage ordonné d'un nombre assez considérable de maisons disposées par rues, et limitées parfois par une enceinte.
  2. 2
    Entité administrative ayant légalement obtenu le statut de ville, comme par exemple certaines communes de Belgique ou du Luxembourg.
  3. 3
    L’administration de cette cité.
  4. 4
    Population d’une ville.
  5. 5
    Vie urbaine, mœurs qui y règnent, par opposition au séjour, à la vie et aux mœurs de la campagne.
  6. 6
    Corps des officiers municipaux.
  7. 7
    Médecine de ville.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how ville appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Oh ! caballero, la ville la plus belle et la plus grande de la vieille Europe est bien petite, bien sale et bien mesquine comparée au désert.
  2. Il y a dans certaines villes jusqu’ici préservées, il y a de ces rues extraordinaires, remarquables tantôt par leur fourmillement et tantôt par leur silence, car la variétés des villes est infinie.

Synonyms

citécommune

Antonyms

campagne

This word in other languages

city(English)ciudad(Español)Stadt(Deutsch)cidade(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • ivlle
  • vilel
  • vlile
  • vville

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of ville - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

ivlle2vilel2vlile2vville1
Edit distance from "ville"

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "ville"?
"ville" is spelled V-I-L-L-E. The IPA pronunciation is \vil\.
What does "ville" mean?
As a noun, "ville" means: Assemblage ordonné d'un nombre assez considérable de maisons disposées par rues, et limitées parfois par une enceinte.
What words are commonly confused with "ville"?
"ville" is commonly confused with "vite", "vive", "viol". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "ville"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "ville" is \vil\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "ville" come from?
"ville" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "ville", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

jours#183place#178elles#176année#173

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list