Which to use
“vaillant” and “veillant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,261
- “vaillant” frequency rank
- #32,230
- “veillant” frequency rank
- 48491
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vaillant | veillant |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui a de la vaillance, qui est courageux. | Qui veille, vigilant. |
Where the eye mixes vaillant and veillant
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses vaillant with veillant
A purely visual mix-up. vaillant (\va.jɑ̃\) and veillant (\ve.jɑ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “vaillant” becomes e in “veillant”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48491, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vaillant is recorded at frequency rank #16,261, classified as anadj, pronounced \va.jɑ̃\. veillant is at rank #32,230, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ve.jɑ̃\.
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 48491, this pair ranks #178,472 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of vaillant vs veillant
Shared letters: ailntv. Private to "vaillant": -. Private to "veillant": e.
"vaillant" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC · "veillant" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "vaillant" and "veillant" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "vaillant" or "veillant"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "vaillant" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "veillant" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #178,472 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vaillant" and "veillant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vaillante vs veillant". 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 #178,472 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.