vilsvsvisasConfusable pair

Quick tell: vils is a adjective, visas is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vils” is an adjective and “visas” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,805
“vils” frequency rank
#20,602
“visas” frequency rank
65407
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vils visas
Definition Masculin pluriel de vil. Pluriel de visa.

Where the eye mixes vils and visas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. vils runs 4 letters (CVCC) against visas's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
vils
5 ch
visas

Visual trap between vils and visas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vils is \vil\ while visas is \vi.za\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65407, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vils is recorded at frequency rank #44,805, classified as anadj, pronounced \vil\. visas is at rank #20,602, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vi.za\.

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 65407, this pair ranks #72,490 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vils vs visas

Shared letters: isv. Private to "vils": l. Private to "visas": a.

"vils" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "visas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vils ← ivls · vills · vilss · visl · vlis · vvils
  • visas ← ivsas · viass · visass · vissas · vsias · vvisas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vils" and "visas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vils" is an adjective and "visas" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "vils" or "visas"?
"visas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,602 in our French list, against #44,805 for "vils". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "vils" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "visas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,490 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vils" and "visas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vils vs viv". 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 #72,490 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