Which to use
“veillent” is a verb and “violent” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #26,572
- “veillent” frequency rank
- #3,970
- “violent” frequency rank
- 30542
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | veillent | violent |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de veiller. | Qui est impétueux, qui agit avec impétuosité, avec une force non contenue, en parlant des évènements, des choses ou des personnes et de leurs actes. |
Where the eye mixes veillent and violent
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses veillent with violent
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: veillent is \vɛj\ while violent is \vjɔ.lɑ̃\. 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 (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30542, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
veillent is recorded at frequency rank #26,572, classified as averb, pronounced \vɛj\. violent is at rank #3,970, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vjɔ.lɑ̃\.
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 30542, this pair ranks #309,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of veillent vs violent
Shared letters: eilntv. Private to "veillent": -. Private to "violent": o.
"veillent" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC · "violent" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "veillent" for "violent" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "veillent" or "violent" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "veillent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "violent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #309,599 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "veillent" and "violent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "veillait vs veillent". 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 #309,599 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.