vigilevsVirgileWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: vigile is a noun, Virgile is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vigile” is a noun and “Virgile” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#20,888
“vigile” frequency rank
#23,063
“Virgile” frequency rank
43951
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vigile Virgile
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). Publius Vergilius Maro (aussi écrit Virgilius), écrivain latin.

Where the eye mixes vigile and Virgile

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. vigile runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against Virgile's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
vigile
7 ch
Virgile

Look-alike desk: vigile vs Virgile

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vigile is \vi.ʒil\ while Virgile is \viʁ.ʒil\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43951, 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\. Virgile is at rank #23,063, tagged as aname, pronounced \viʁ.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 43951, this pair ranks #214,140 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vigile vs Virgile

Shared letters: egilv. Private to "vigile": -. Private to "Virgile": r.

"vigile" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "Virgile" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vigileivgile · vgiile · viggile · vigiel · vigille · viglie · viigle · vvigile
  • Virgileivrgile · vigrile · virggile · virgiel · virgille · virglie · virigle · virrgile

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vigile" for "Virgile" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vigile" is a noun and "Virgile" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "vigile" or "Virgile"?
"vigile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,888 in our French list, against #23,063 for "Virgile". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "vigile" and "Virgile" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vigile" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Virgile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #214,140 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vigile" and "Virgile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Virgile 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 #214,140 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