viragevsvitrageWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#7,920
“virage” frequency rank
#39,595
“vitrage” frequency rank
47515
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature virage vitrage
Definition Action de faire tourner un véhicule, un avion, etc. Ensemble des vitres d’un bâtiment, d’un édifice.

Where the eye mixes virage and vitrage

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. virage runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against vitrage's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
virage
7 ch
vitrage

Look-alike desk: virage vs vitrage

A purely visual mix-up. virage (\vi.ʁaʒ\) and vitrage (\vi.tʁaʒ\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47515, 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\. vitrage is at rank #39,595, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vi.tʁaʒ\.

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 47515, this pair ranks #186,357 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of virage vs vitrage

Shared letters: aegirv. Private to "virage": -. Private to "vitrage": t.

"virage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "vitrage" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • virage ← ivrage · viarge · viraeg · viragge · virgae · virrage · vriage · vvirage
  • vitrage ← ivtrage · virtage · vitarge · vitraeg · vitragge · vitrgae · vitrrage · vittrage

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "virage" and "vitrage" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\vi.ʁaʒ\ versus \vi.tʁaʒ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "virage" or "vitrage" show up more?
"virage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,920 in our French list, against #39,595 for "vitrage". 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 "virage" and "vitrage" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "virage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vitrage" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #186,357 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "virage" and "vitrage" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vitrage vs vitrail". 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 #186,357 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