Which to use
“viole” and “viols” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,489
- “viole” frequency rank
- #11,324
- “viols” frequency rank
- 24813
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | viole | viols |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Instrument de musique à six ou sept cordes, dont on joue avec un archet. | Pluriel de viol. |
Same sound, different letters: viole vs viols
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.
Ear matches; page differs - viole and viols
This is the hard kind. viole and viols are pronounced identically (\vjɔl\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by a single letter - e in “viole” becomes s in “viols”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
viole is recorded at frequency rank #13,489, classified as anoun, pronounced \vjɔl\. viols is at rank #11,324, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vjɔl\.
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 24813, this pair ranks #344,470 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of viole vs viols
Shared letters: ilov. Private to "viole": e. Private to "viols": s.
"viole" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "viols" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "viole" for "viols" ever safe?
Frequency check: "viole" vs "viols" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "viole" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "viols" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #344,470 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "viole" and "viols" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vial vs viole". 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 #344,470 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.