Which to use
“vielle” is a noun and “virile” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #17,035
- “vielle” frequency rank
- #34,357
- “virile” frequency rank
- 51392
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vielle | virile |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Instrument de musique à cordes, dont on joue par le moyen de touches et d’une roue qu’on tourne avec une manivelle, qui permet de faire sonner les cordes mélodiques et bourdon, et, par accélérations rapides, de faire vibrer la corde trompette et le chien pour donner un son caractéristique grésillant. | Féminin singulier de viril. |
Where the eye mixes vielle and virile
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. vielle (CVVCCV) and virile (CVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between vielle and virile
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vielle is \vjɛl\ while virile is \vi.ʁil\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51392, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vielle is recorded at frequency rank #17,035, classified as anoun, pronounced \vjɛl\. virile is at rank #34,357, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vi.ʁil\.
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 51392, this pair ranks #155,331 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of vielle vs virile
Shared letters: eilv. Private to "vielle": -. Private to "virile": r.
"vielle" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "virile" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "vielle" and "virile" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "vielle" or "virile" 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 "vielle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "virile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #155,331 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vielle" and "virile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vigie vs virile". 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 #155,331 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.