violonsvsviolsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#20,018
“violons” frequency rank
#11,324
“viols” frequency rank
31342
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature violons viols
Definition Pluriel de violon. Pluriel de viol.

Where the eye mixes violons and viols

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

7 ch
violons
5 ch
viols

Look-alike desk: violons vs viols

A purely visual mix-up. violons (\vjɔ.lɔ̃\) and viols (\vjɔl\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31342, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

violons is recorded at frequency rank #20,018, classified as anoun, pronounced \vjɔ.lɔ̃\. 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 31342, this pair ranks #304,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of violons vs viols

Shared letters: ilosv. Private to "violons": n. Private to "viols": -.

"violons" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC  ·  "viols" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • violonsivolons · viloons · viollons · violnos · violonns · violonss · violosn · vioolns
  • violsivols · vilos · violls · violss · viosl · voils · vviols

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "violons" and "viols" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\vjɔ.lɔ̃\ versus \vjɔl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "violons" or "viols"?
"viols" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,324 in our French list, against #20,018 for "violons". 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 "violons" and "viols" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "violons" 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 #304,407 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "violons" and "viols" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "violons vs visons". 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 #304,407 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