viganvsvisaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#50,000
“vigan” frequency rank
#6,770
“visa” frequency rank
56770
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vigan visa
Definition Gros drap de laine foulée, de faible qualité, ni tondu, ni peigné, il contenait 960 fils de chaîne pour une largeur de 3/4 d'aune. Attestation qu’un acte a été examiné, qui rend cet acte valable.

Where the eye mixes vigan and visa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
vigan
4 ch
visa

Look-alike desk: vigan vs visa

A purely visual mix-up. vigan (\vi.ɡɑ̃\) and visa (\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 56770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vigan is recorded at frequency rank #50,000, classified as anoun, pronounced \vi.ɡɑ̃\. visa is at rank #6,770, 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 56770, this pair ranks #119,031 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vigan vs visa

Shared letters: aiv. Private to "vigan": gn. Private to "visa": s.

"vigan" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "visa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • viganivgan · vgian · viagn · vigann · viggan · vigna · vvigan
  • visaivsa · vissa · vsia · vvisa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vigan" and "visa" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\vi.ɡɑ̃\ versus \vi.za\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "vigan" or "visa"?
"visa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,770 in our French list, against #50,000 for "vigan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "vigan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "visa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #119,031 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vigan" and "visa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vigan vs vlan". 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 #119,031 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