valsevsvulveWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,182
“valse” frequency rank
#40,080
“vulve” frequency rank
59262
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature valse vulve
Definition Danse tournante exécutée par un couple sur un mouvement, habituellement à trois temps. Ensemble des organes génitaux externes des filles et des femmes et de certaines femelles de mammifères, constitué principalement des grandes lèvres et des petites lèvres enserrant l’entrée du vagin, du clitoris et du méat urinaire.

Where the eye mixes valse and vulve

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. valse and vulve follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
valse
5 ch
vulve

Visual trap between valse and vulve

A purely visual mix-up. valse (\vals\) and vulve (\vylv\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59262, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

valse is recorded at frequency rank #19,182, classified as anoun, pronounced \vals\. vulve is at rank #40,080, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vylv\.

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 59262, this pair ranks #104,161 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of valse vs vulve

Shared letters: elv. Private to "valse": as. Private to "vulve": u.

"valse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "vulve" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • valse ← avlse · vales · vallse · valsse · vasle · vlase · vvalse
  • vulve ← uvlve · vluve · vulev · vullve · vulvve · vuvle · vvulve

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "valse" for "vulve" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vals\ versus \vylv\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "valse" or "vulve"?
"valse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,182 in our French list, against #40,080 for "vulve". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "valse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vulve" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,161 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "valse" and "vulve" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vile vs vulve". 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 #104,161 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