vigilesvsvillesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#29,593
“vigiles” frequency rank
#891
“villes” frequency rank
30484
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vigiles villes
Definition Pluriel de vigile. Pluriel de ville.

Where the eye mixes vigiles and villes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. vigiles runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against villes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
vigiles
6 ch
villes

Look-alike desk: vigiles vs villes

A purely visual mix-up. vigiles (\vi.ʒil\) and villes (\vil\) 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 30484, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vigiles is recorded at frequency rank #29,593, classified as anoun, pronounced \vi.ʒil\. villes is at rank #891, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vil\.

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 30484, this pair ranks #310,029 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vigiles vs villes

Shared letters: eilsv. Private to "vigiles": g. Private to "villes": -.

"vigiles" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "villes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vigiles ← ivgiles · vgiiles · viggiles · vigiels · vigiless · vigilles · vigilse · viglies
  • villes ← ivlles · vilels · viles · villess · villse · vliles · vvilles

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vigiles" and "villes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\vi.ʒil\ versus \vil\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "vigiles" or "villes"?
"villes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #891 in our French list, against #29,593 for "vigiles". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "vigiles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "villes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #310,029 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vigiles" and "villes" 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 #310,029 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