vire

\viʁ\

/\viʁ\/ noun

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

The verdict

“vire” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #9,094) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#9,094
frequency rank, French
2,061
“V” headwords
1
tracked misspelling
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Étroite plate-forme ou corniche sur les flancs d’une paroi rocheuse, sentier serpentant le long d’une montagne.

Corpus desk

Index FR-vire · vire · French

vire · rank #9,094 · 1 variant · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #9,094
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 1 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,061
  • PHOTO-FINISH vernis

Nearest frequency peer: vernis (-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 « vire »

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

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « vire » 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).

vire vs VR
0% similar
vire vs vue
50% similar
vire vs vis
50% similar

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

Key facts for vire
PropertyValue
Headwordvire
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\viʁ\
Letters4
Frequency rank#9,094
Misspellings tracked1
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « vire »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.virese 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 « vernis » (#9,093), « visée » (#9,095), « Vannes » (#9,092). Parmi 2,061 lemmes en « V », « vire » est au #9,094. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for vire is neighbouring look-alikes ("VR", "vue", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \viʁ\. Frequency #9,094 among 2,061 “V” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 1 likely wrong-spelling variant for vire, including "vrie". 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, "VR", "vue", "vis", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, 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 vire, spelled V-I-R-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Étroite plate-forme ou corniche sur les flancs d’une paroi rocheuse, sentier serpentant le long d’une montagne.
  2. 2
    Ancien nom du panaris sous-épidermique.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Une vire court vers l’autre face, et je passe de l’ombre à la lumière comme l’on tourne les feuillets d’un livre.
  2. Trois heures plus tard, pour atteindre le refuge d’hiver Bertacchi, nous progressions sur une vire qui balafrait un ressaut rocheux, crampons aux pieds, skis sur le dos, encordés à la taille.

This word in other languages

ledge(English)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • vrie

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of vire - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

vrie2
Edit distance from "vire"

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 "vire"?
"vire" is spelled V-I-R-E. The IPA pronunciation is \viʁ\.
What does "vire" mean?
As a noun, "vire" means: Étroite plate-forme ou corniche sur les flancs d’une paroi rocheuse, sentier serpentant le long d’une montagne.
What words are commonly confused with "vire"?
"vire" is commonly confused with "VR", "vue", "vis". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "vire"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "vire" is \viʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "vire" come from?
"vire" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "vire", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

poli#9,059chan#9,131jura#9,030have#9,020

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list