VailvsveilWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Vail is a name, veil is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Vail” is a name and “veil” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,512
“Vail” frequency rank
#23,410
“veil” frequency rank
69922
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Vail veil
Definition Station de sports d’hiver américaine située dans le comté d’Eagle dans le Colorado, Voile.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set Vail and veil apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
Vail
4 ch
veil

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Vail is aname and veilanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - a in “Vail” becomes e in “veil”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69922, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Vail is recorded at frequency rank #46,512, classified as aname. veil is at rank #23,410, tagged as anoun, pronounced \veɪl\.

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 69922, this pair ranks #53,306 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Vail vs veil

Shared letters: ilv. Private to "Vail": a. Private to "veil": e.

"Vail" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "veil" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Vailavil · vaill · vali · vvail
  • veilveill · veli · vveil

Frequency comparison

Vail#46,512
veil#23,410

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Vail" and "veil" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Vail" is a name and "veil" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Vail" or "veil"?
"veil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,410 in our French list, against #46,512 for "Vail". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering Vail vs veil

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a name, it's “Vail”; for a noun, it's “veil”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “Vail” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list