Which to use
“veillée” is a noun and “voilée” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,132
- “veillée” frequency rank
- #16,267
- “voilée” frequency rank
- 38399
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | veillée | voilée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Temps pendant lequel on veille, soirée. | Féminin singulier de voilé. |
Where the eye mixes veillée and voilée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. veillée runs 7 letters (CVVCCVV) against voilée's 6 (CVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: veillée vs voilée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: veillée is \ve.je\ while voilée is \vwa.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38399, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
veillée is recorded at frequency rank #22,132, classified as anoun, pronounced \ve.je\. voilée is at rank #16,267, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vwa.le\.
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 38399, this pair ranks #255,524 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of veillée vs voilée
Shared letters: eilvé. Private to "veillée": -. Private to "voilée": o.
"veillée" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVV · "voilée" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "veillée" for "voilée" ever safe?
Frequency check: "veillée" vs "voilée" - which ranks higher?
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 "veillée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "voilée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #255,524 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "veillée" and "voilée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "veillée vs veillées". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #255,524 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.