vaillantsvsveillantConfusable pair

Which to use

“vaillants” and “veillant” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,766
“vaillants” frequency rank
#32,230
“veillant” frequency rank
67996
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vaillants veillant
Definition Masculin pluriel de vaillant. Qui veille, vigilant.

Where the eye mixes vaillants and veillant

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. vaillants runs 9 letters (CVVCCVCCC) against veillant's 8 (CVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
vaillants
8 ch
veillant

Look-alike desk: vaillants vs veillant

A purely visual mix-up. vaillants (\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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67996, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vaillants is recorded at frequency rank #35,766, 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 67996, this pair ranks #61,039 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vaillants vs veillant

Shared letters: ailntv. Private to "vaillants": s. Private to "veillant": e.

"vaillants" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVCCC  ·  "veillant" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vaillantsavillants · vailalnts · vailants · vaillannts · vaillanst · vaillantss · vaillantts · vaillatns
  • veillantevillant · veilalnt · veilant · veillannt · veillantt · veillatn · veillnat · velilant

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vaillants" and "veillant" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\va.jɑ̃\ versus \ve.jɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "vaillants" vs "veillant" - which ranks higher?
"veillant" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,230 in our French list, against #35,766 for "vaillants". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "vaillants" and "veillant" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vaillants" 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 #61,039 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vaillants" and "veillant" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vaillante vs vaillants". 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 #61,039 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list