vieillisvsvieillotWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#34,802
“vieillis” frequency rank
#42,678
“vieillot” frequency rank
77480
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vieillis vieillot
Definition Masculin pluriel de vieilli. Qui a un air de vieillesse.

Where the eye mixes vieillis and vieillot

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. vieillis and vieillot follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
vieillis
8 ch
vieillot

Visual trap between vieillis and vieillot

A purely visual mix-up. vieillis (\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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77480, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vieillis is recorded at frequency rank #34,802, 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 77480, this pair ranks #28,239 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vieillis vs vieillot

Shared letters: eilv. Private to "vieillis": s. Private to "vieillot": ot.

"vieillis" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC  ·  "vieillot" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vieillisiveillis · veiillis · vieilils · vieilis · vieilliss · vieillsi · vielilis · viiellis
  • vieillotiveillot · veiillot · vieillott · vieillto · vieilolt · vieilot · vielilot · viiellot

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vieillis" for "vieillot" ever safe?
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 "vieillis" or "vieillot" show up more?
"vieillis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,802 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 "vieillis" and "vieillot" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vieillis" 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 #28,239 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vieillis" and "vieillot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vieillis vs vielles". 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 #28,239 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