vilsvsviteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#44,805
“vils” frequency rank
#406
“vite” frequency rank
45211
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vils vite
Definition Masculin pluriel de vil. Rapide, qui se meut avec célérité, avec promptitude ; se dit surtout dans le sport, sinon plutôt des animaux et des choses dont le mouvement est rapide.

Where the eye mixes vils and vite

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
vils
4 ch
vite

Visual trap between vils and vite

A purely visual mix-up. vils (\vil\) and vite (\vit\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45211, 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\. vite is at rank #406, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vit\.

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 45211, this pair ranks #204,510 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vils vs vite

Shared letters: iv. Private to "vils": ls. Private to "vite": et.

"vils" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "vite" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vilsivls · vills · vilss · visl · vlis · vvils
  • viteivte · vitte · vtie · vvite

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vils" for "vite" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vil\ versus \vit\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "vils" vs "vite" - which ranks higher?
"vite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #406 in our French list, against #44,805 for "vils". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "vils" and "vite" 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 "vite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #204,510 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vils" and "vite" 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 #204,510 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