vialvsvisasWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#49,425
“vial” frequency rank
#20,602
“visas” frequency rank
70027
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vial visas
Definition Petite fiole, en particulier quand elle contient un produit à analyser (surtout utilisé pour la chromatographie). Pluriel de visa.

Where the eye mixes vial and visas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. vial runs 4 letters (CVVC) against visas's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
vial
5 ch
visas

Look-alike desk: vial vs visas

A purely visual mix-up. vial (\vjal\) and visas (\vi.za\) 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 70027, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vial is recorded at frequency rank #49,425, classified as anoun, pronounced \vjal\. visas is at rank #20,602, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vi.za\.

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 70027, this pair ranks #52,909 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vial vs visas

Shared letters: aiv. Private to "vial": l. Private to "visas": s.

"vial" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "visas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vial ← ival · viall · vvial
  • visas ← ivsas · viass · visass · vissas · vsias · vvisas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vial" for "visas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vjal\ versus \vi.za\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "vial" or "visas"?
"visas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,602 in our French list, against #49,425 for "vial". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vial" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "visas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,909 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vial" and "visas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vial vs vigan". 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 #52,909 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