Which to use
“vir” and “vires” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,521
- “vir” frequency rank
- #43,722
- “vires” frequency rank
- 90243
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vir | vires |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Forme mutée de bir par adoucissement (b → v). | Pluriel de vire. |
Where the eye mixes vir and vires
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. vir runs 3 letters (CVC) against vires's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between vir and vires
A purely visual mix-up. vir (\ˈviː.r\) and vires (\viʁ\) 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 extra letter(s) - “vir” sits inside “vires”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90243, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vir is recorded at frequency rank #46,521, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈviː.r\. vires is at rank #43,722, tagged as anoun, pronounced \viʁ\.
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 90243, this pair ranks #4,977 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of vir vs vires
Shared letters: irv. Private to "vir": -. Private to "vires": es.
"vir" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "vires" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- vires ← viers · viress · virres · virse · vries
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "vir" and "vires" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "vir" vs "vires" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "vir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vires" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #4,977 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vir" and "vires" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vir 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 #4,977 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.