virentvsvirerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#19,710
“virent” frequency rank
#5,715
“virer” frequency rank
25425
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature virent virer
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de virer. Aller en tournant.

Where the eye mixes virent and virer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
virent
5 ch
virer

Look-alike desk: virent vs virer

A purely visual mix-up. virent (\viʁ\) and virer (\vi.ʁe\) 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 25425, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

virent is recorded at frequency rank #19,710, classified as averb, pronounced \viʁ\. virer is at rank #5,715, tagged as averb, pronounced \vi.ʁe\.

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 25425, this pair ranks #340,953 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of virent vs virer

Shared letters: eirv. Private to "virent": nt. Private to "virer": -.

"virent" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "virer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • virentivrent · viernt · virennt · virentt · viretn · virnet · virrent · vrient
  • virerivrer · vierr · virerr · virre · virrer · vrier · vvirer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "virent" for "virer" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\viʁ\ versus \vi.ʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "virent" vs "virer" - which ranks higher?
"virer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,715 in our French list, against #19,710 for "virent". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "virent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "virer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #340,953 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "virent" and "virer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "virées vs virent". 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 #340,953 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