vieillivsvieillotTell them apart

Which to use

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

#15,536
“vieilli” frequency rank
#42,678
“vieillot” frequency rank
58214
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vieilli vieillot
Definition Qui a pris un coup de vieux. Qui a un air de vieillesse.

Where the eye mixes vieilli and vieillot

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

7 ch
vieilli
8 ch
vieillot

Why the eye confuses vieilli with vieillot

A purely visual mix-up. vieilli (\vje.ji\) and vieillot (\vjɛ.jo\) 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 58214, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vieilli is recorded at frequency rank #15,536, classified as anadj, pronounced \vje.ji\. vieillot is at rank #42,678, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vjɛ.jo\.

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 58214, this pair ranks #110,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vieilli vs vieillot

Shared letters: eilv. Private to "vieilli": -. Private to "vieillot": ot.

"vieilli" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCCV  ·  "vieillot" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vieilli ← iveilli · veiilli · vieili · vieilil · vielili · viielli · vvieilli
  • vieillot ← iveillot · veiillot · vieillott · vieillto · vieilolt · vieilot · vielilot · viiellot

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vieilli" and "vieillot" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\vje.ji\ versus \vjɛ.jo\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "vieilli" or "vieillot" show up more?
"vieilli" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,536 in our French list, against #42,678 for "vieillot". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "vieilli" and "vieillot" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vieilli" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vieillot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #110,376 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vieilli" and "vieillot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vieillis vs vieillot". 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 #110,376 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