virentvsviresWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: virent is a verb, vires is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“virent” is a verb and “vires” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19,710
“virent” frequency rank
#43,722
“vires” frequency rank
63432
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature virent vires
Definition Troisième personne du pluriel du présent de l’indicatif de virer. Pluriel de vire.

Same sound, different letters: virent vs vires

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 4 letters.

6 ch
virent
5 ch
vires

Homophone desk: virent vs vires

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: virent and vires carry the same recorded pronunciation, \viʁ\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is averb, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63432, 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\. vires is at rank #43,722, 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 63432, this pair ranks #81,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of virent vs vires

Shared letters: eirv. Private to "virent": nt. Private to "vires": s.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • virentivrent · viernt · virennt · virentt · viretn · virnet · virrent · vrient
  • viresviers · viress · virres · virse · vries

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "virent" for "vires" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "virent" is a verb and "vires" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "virent" vs "vires" - which ranks higher?
"virent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,710 in our French list, against #43,722 for "vires". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

"virent" and "vires" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.

  • Full dictionary entry for "virent" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vires" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #81,996 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "virent" and "vires" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "virées vs vires". 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 #81,996 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