virvsvitWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,521
“vir” frequency rank
#1,282
“vit” frequency rank
47803
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vir vit
Definition Forme mutée de bir par adoucissement (b → v). Pénis, membre viril.

Where the eye mixes vir and vit

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
vir
3 ch
vit

Visual trap between vir and vit

A purely visual mix-up. vir (\ˈviː.r\) and vit (\vi\) 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 a single letter - r in “vir” becomes t in “vit”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47803, 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\. vit is at rank #1,282, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vi\.

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 47803, this pair ranks #184,020 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vir vs vit

Shared letters: iv. Private to "vir": r. Private to "vit": t.

"vir" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "vit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vir" and "vit" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈviː.r\ versus \vi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "vir" or "vit" show up more?
"vit" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,282 in our French list, against #46,521 for "vir". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "vir" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #184,020 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vir" and "vit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vir vs viv". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #184,020 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