violsvsvisasWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#11,324
“viols” frequency rank
#20,602
“visas” frequency rank
31926
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature viols visas
Definition Pluriel de viol. Pluriel de visa.

Where the eye mixes viols and visas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
viols
5 ch
visas

Look-alike desk: viols vs visas

A purely visual mix-up. viols (\vjɔl\) and visas (\vi.za\) 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 31926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

viols is recorded at frequency rank #11,324, classified as anoun, pronounced \vjɔl\. 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 31926, this pair ranks #300,682 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of viols vs visas

Shared letters: isv. Private to "viols": lo. Private to "visas": a.

"viols" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "visas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • violsivols · vilos · violls · violss · viosl · voils · vviols
  • visasivsas · viass · visass · vissas · vsias · vvisas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "viols" for "visas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vjɔl\ versus \vi.za\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "viols" vs "visas" - which ranks higher?
"viols" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,324 in our French list, against #20,602 for "visas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "viols" 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 #300,682 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "viols" and "visas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vigan vs visas". 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 #300,682 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