Which to use
“valve” and “vulve” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,767
- “valve” frequency rank
- #40,080
- “vulve” frequency rank
- 56847
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | valve | vulve |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sorte de clapet qui empêche le retour du sang après son éjection par le cœur. | 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 valve and vulve
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. valve and vulve follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: valve vs vulve
A purely visual mix-up. valve (\valv\) 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 differ by a single letter - a in “valve” becomes u in “vulve”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56847, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
valve is recorded at frequency rank #16,767, classified as anoun, pronounced \valv\. 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 56847, this pair ranks #118,539 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of valve vs vulve
Shared letters: elv. Private to "valve": a. Private to "vulve": u.
"valve" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "vulve" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "valve" and "vulve" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "valve" or "vulve"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "valve" 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 #118,539 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "valve" 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 #118,539 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.