Which to use
“vil” is an adjective and “vilar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #23,730
- “vil” frequency rank
- #48,858
- “vilar” frequency rank
- 72588
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vil | vilar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui est bas, abject, méprisable. | Troisième personne du singulier du présent du verbe vilá (« détruire »). |
Where the eye mixes vil and vilar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. vil runs 3 letters (CVC) against vilar's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: vil vs vilar
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vil is \vil\ while vilar is \viˈlar\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “vil” sits inside “vilar”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72588, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vil is recorded at frequency rank #23,730, classified as anadj, pronounced \vil\. vilar is at rank #48,858, tagged as averb, pronounced \viˈlar\.
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 72588, this pair ranks #43,481 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of vil vs vilar
Shared letters: ilv. Private to "vil": -. Private to "vilar": ar.
"vil" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "vilar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- vilar ← ivlar · vialr · vilarr · villar · vilra · vliar · vvilar
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "vil" for "vilar" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "vil" or "vilar" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "vil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vilar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #43,481 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vil" and "vilar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vigan vs vilar". 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 #43,481 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.