Which to use
“vir” and “virus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,521
- “vir” frequency rank
- #3,114
- “virus” frequency rank
- 49635
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vir | virus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Forme mutée de bir par adoucissement (b → v). | Entité biologique qui nécessite une cellule hôte, dont il utilise les constituants pour se multiplier. |
Where the eye mixes vir and virus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. vir runs 3 letters (CVC) against virus's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses vir with virus
A purely visual mix-up. vir (\ˈviː.r\) and virus (\vi.ʁys\) 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 “virus”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49635, 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\. virus is at rank #3,114, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vi.ʁys\.
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 49635, this pair ranks #169,038 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of vir vs virus
Shared letters: irv. Private to "vir": -. Private to "virus": su.
"vir" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "virus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- virus ← ivrus · virrus · virsu · viruss · viurs · vrius · vvirus
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "vir" and "virus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "vir" or "virus"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "vir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "virus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #169,038 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vir" and "virus" 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 #169,038 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.