vigilevsvigilesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#20,888
“vigile” frequency rank
#29,593
“vigiles” frequency rank
50481
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vigile vigiles
Definition Personne (homme ou femme) chargée d’une fonction de surveillance, de sécurité, le plus souvent dans des locaux commerciaux, industriels (pour une femme, on dira aussi femme vigile). Pluriel de vigile.

Same sound, different letters: vigile vs vigiles

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. vigile runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against vigiles's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
vigile
7 ch
vigiles

Homophone desk: vigile vs vigiles

This is the hard kind. vigile and vigiles are pronounced identically (\vi.ʒil\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “vigile” sits inside “vigiles”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50481, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vigile is recorded at frequency rank #20,888, classified as anoun, pronounced \vi.ʒil\. vigiles is at rank #29,593, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vi.ʒil\.

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 50481, this pair ranks #162,283 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vigile vs vigiles

Shared letters: egilv. Private to "vigile": -. Private to "vigiles": s.

"vigile" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "vigiles" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vigile ← ivgile · vgiile · viggile · vigiel · vigille · viglie · viigle · vvigile
  • vigiles ← ivgiles · vgiiles · viggiles · vigiels · vigiless · vigilles · vigilse · viglies

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vigile" for "vigiles" ever safe?
No. They are pronounced the same (\vi.ʒil\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary French text, does "vigile" or "vigiles" show up more?
"vigile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,888 in our French list, against #29,593 for "vigiles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "vigile" / "vigiles". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vigile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vigiles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #162,283 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vigile" and "vigiles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vigiles vs virgules". 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 #162,283 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