Which to use
“veil” and “ves” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #23,410
- “veil” frequency rank
- #42,676
- “ves” frequency rank
- 66086
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | veil | ves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Voile. | Veuves. |
Where the eye mixes veil and ves
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. veil runs 4 letters (CVVC) against ves's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between veil and ves
A purely visual mix-up. veil (\veɪl\) and ves (\vœv\) 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 66086, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
veil is recorded at frequency rank #23,410, classified as anoun, pronounced \veɪl\. ves is at rank #42,676, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vœv\.
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 66086, this pair ranks #69,370 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of veil vs ves
Shared letters: ev. Private to "veil": il. Private to "ves": s.
"veil" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "ves" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- veil ← veill · veli · vveil
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "veil" for "ves" ever safe?
Frequency check: "veil" vs "ves" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "veil" and "ves" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "veil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #69,370 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "veil" and "ves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ves vs viv". 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 #69,370 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.