Which to use
“virage” and “vire” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,920
- “virage” frequency rank
- #9,094
- “vire” frequency rank
- 17014
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | virage | vire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de faire tourner un véhicule, un avion, etc. | Étroite plate-forme ou corniche sur les flancs d’une paroi rocheuse, sentier serpentant le long d’une montagne. |
Where the eye mixes virage and vire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: virage vs vire
A purely visual mix-up. virage (\vi.ʁaʒ\) and vire (\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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17014, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
virage is recorded at frequency rank #7,920, classified as anoun, pronounced \vi.ʁaʒ\. vire is at rank #9,094, 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 17014, this pair ranks #385,198 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of virage vs vire
Shared letters: eirv. Private to "virage": ag. Private to "vire": -.
"virage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "vire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "virage" and "vire" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "virage" or "vire" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "virage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #385,198 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "virage" and "vire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vire 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 #385,198 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.