Which to use
“vigile” is a noun and “virile” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,888
- “vigile” frequency rank
- #34,357
- “virile” frequency rank
- 55245
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vigile | virile |
|---|---|---|
| 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). | Féminin singulier de viril. |
Where the eye mixes vigile and virile
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. vigile and virile follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: vigile vs virile
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vigile is \vi.ʒil\ while virile is \vi.ʁil\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - g in “vigile” becomes r in “virile”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55245, 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\. 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 55245, this pair ranks #128,712 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of vigile vs virile
Shared letters: eilv. Private to "vigile": g. Private to "virile": r.
"vigile" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "virile" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "vigile" and "virile" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "vigile" or "virile" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "vigile" 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 #128,712 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vigile" 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 #128,712 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.