vigilesvsvirgulesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#29,593
“vigiles” frequency rank
#41,068
“virgules” frequency rank
70661
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vigiles virgules
Definition Pluriel de vigile. Pluriel de virgule.

Where the eye mixes vigiles and virgules

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. vigiles runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against virgules's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
vigiles
8 ch
virgules

Visual trap between vigiles and virgules

A purely visual mix-up. vigiles (\vi.ʒil\) and virgules (\viʁ.ɡyl\) 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 70661, 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\. virgules is at rank #41,068, tagged as anoun, pronounced \viʁ.ɡyl\.

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 70661, this pair ranks #50,515 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vigiles vs virgules

Shared letters: egilsv. Private to "vigiles": -. Private to "virgules": ru.

"vigiles" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "virgules" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vigiles ← ivgiles · vgiiles · viggiles · vigiels · vigiless · vigilles · vigilse · viglies
  • virgules ← ivrgules · vigrules · virggules · virglues · virguels · virguless · virgulles · virgulse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vigiles" and "virgules" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\vi.ʒil\ versus \viʁ.ɡyl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "vigiles" or "virgules"?
"vigiles" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,593 in our French list, against #41,068 for "virgules". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "vigiles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "virgules" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,515 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vigiles" and "virgules" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "virales 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 #50,515 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