veilleurvsvioleurWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#41,058
“veilleur” frequency rank
#13,937
“violeur” frequency rank
54995
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature veilleur violeur
Definition Celui qui veille. Quelqu’un, généralement un homme, qui commet un viol.

Where the eye mixes veilleur and violeur

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. veilleur runs 8 letters (CVVCCVVC) against violeur's 7 (CVVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
veilleur
7 ch
violeur

Visual trap between veilleur and violeur

A purely visual mix-up. veilleur (\vɛ.jœʁ\) and violeur (\vjɔ.lœʁ\) 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 54995, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

veilleur is recorded at frequency rank #41,058, classified as anoun, pronounced \vɛ.jœʁ\. violeur is at rank #13,937, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vjɔ.lœʁ\.

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 54995, this pair ranks #130,317 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of veilleur vs violeur

Shared letters: eilruv. Private to "veilleur": -. Private to "violeur": o.

"veilleur" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC  ·  "violeur" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • veilleurevilleur · veilelur · veileur · veilleru · veilleurr · veilluer · velileur · vielleur
  • violeurivoleur · viloeur · vioelur · violeru · violeurr · violleur · violuer · voileur

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "veilleur" and "violeur" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\vɛ.jœʁ\ versus \vjɔ.lœʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "veilleur" or "violeur"?
"violeur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,937 in our French list, against #41,058 for "veilleur". 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 "veilleur" and "violeur" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "veilleur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "violeur" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #130,317 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "veilleur" and "violeur" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "veillées vs veilleur". 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 #130,317 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