violeurvsvolerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: violeur is a noun, voler is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“violeur” is a noun and “voler” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,937
“violeur” frequency rank
#3,115
“voler” frequency rank
17052
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature violeur voler
Definition Quelqu’un, généralement un homme, qui commet un viol. Se maintenir dans les airs en battant des ailes.

Where the eye mixes violeur and voler

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
violeur
5 ch
voler

Look-alike desk: violeur vs voler

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: violeur is \vjɔ.lœʁ\ while voler is \vɔ.le\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17052, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

violeur is recorded at frequency rank #13,937, classified as anoun, pronounced \vjɔ.lœʁ\. voler is at rank #3,115, tagged as averb, pronounced \vɔ.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 17052, this pair ranks #385,037 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of violeur vs voler

Shared letters: elorv. Private to "violeur": iu. Private to "voler": -.

"violeur" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC  ·  "voler" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • violeurivoleur · viloeur · vioelur · violeru · violeurr · violleur · violuer · voileur
  • volerovler · vloer · voelr · volerr · voller · volre · vvoler

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "violeur" for "voler" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "violeur" is a noun and "voler" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "violeur" vs "voler" - which ranks higher?
"voler" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,115 in our French list, against #13,937 for "violeur". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "violeur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "voler" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #385,037 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "violeur" and "voler" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vibreur vs violeur". 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 #385,037 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