viervsvisConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#41,592
“vier” frequency rank
#993
“vis” frequency rank
42585
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vier vis
Definition Pénis. Pièce mécanique formée d’un corps qui comporte un filet de forme hélicoïdale et une tête où une empreinte permet d’appliquer un couple ; il en résulte un double mouvement de rotation et de translation. En mécanique, elles sont souvent employées avec des écrous pour former des boulons.

Where the eye mixes vier and vis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
vier
3 ch
vis

Why the eye confuses vier with vis

A purely visual mix-up. vier (\vje\) and vis (\vis\) 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 42585, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vier is recorded at frequency rank #41,592, classified as anoun, pronounced \vje\. vis is at rank #993, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vis\.

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 42585, this pair ranks #224,496 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vier vs vis

Shared letters: iv. Private to "vier": er. Private to "vis": s.

"vier" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "vis" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vierveir · vvier

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vier" and "vis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\vje\ versus \vis\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "vier" or "vis"?
"vis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #993 in our French list, against #41,592 for "vier". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #224,496 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vier" and "vis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vier vs viv". 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 #224,496 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