vilarvsvoilerConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#48,858
“vilar” frequency rank
#21,812
“voiler” frequency rank
70670
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vilar voiler
Definition Troisième personne du singulier du présent du verbe vilá (« détruire »). Couvrir d’un voile.

Where the eye mixes vilar and voiler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. vilar runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against voiler's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
vilar
6 ch
voiler

Visual trap between vilar and voiler

A purely visual mix-up. vilar (\viˈlar\) and voiler (\vwa.le\) 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 70670, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vilar is recorded at frequency rank #48,858, classified as averb, pronounced \viˈlar\. voiler is at rank #21,812, tagged as averb, pronounced \vwa.le\.

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 70670, this pair ranks #50,475 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vilar vs voiler

Shared letters: ilrv. Private to "vilar": a. Private to "voiler": eo.

"vilar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "voiler" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vilar ← ivlar · vialr · vilarr · villar · vilra · vliar · vvilar
  • voiler ← oviler · voielr · voilerr · voiller · voilre · volier · vvoiler

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vilar" for "voiler" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\viˈlar\ versus \vwa.le\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "vilar" or "voiler"?
"voiler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,812 in our French list, against #48,858 for "vilar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "vilar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voiler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,475 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vilar" and "voiler" 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 #50,475 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