VirgilvsVirgileTell them apart

Which to use

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

#31,779
“Virgil” frequency rank
#23,063
“Virgile” frequency rank
54842
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Virgil Virgile
Definition Prénom masculin. Publius Vergilius Maro (aussi écrit Virgilius), écrivain latin.

Letter map: Virgil vs Virgile

Shared letters muted; letters that set Virgil and Virgile apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. Virgil runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against Virgile's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Virgil
7 ch
Virgile

Corpus notes: Virgil and Virgile

Virgil and Virgile are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Virgil” sits inside “Virgile”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54842, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Virgil is recorded at frequency rank #31,779, classified as aname. Virgile is at rank #23,063, tagged as aname, pronounced \viʁ.ʒil\.

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 54842, this pair ranks #131,320 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Virgil vs Virgile

Shared letters: gilrv. Private to "Virgil": -. Private to "Virgile": e.

"Virgil" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "Virgile" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Virgilivrgil · vigril · virggil · virgill · virgli · virigl · virrgil · vrigil
  • Virgileivrgile · vigrile · virggile · virgiel · virgille · virglie · virigle · virrgile

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Virgil" for "Virgile" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “Virgil” sits inside “Virgile”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary French text, does "Virgil" or "Virgile" show up more?
"Virgile" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,063 in our French list, against #31,779 for "Virgil". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Virgil" and "Virgile".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Virgil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Virgile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #131,320 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Virgil" and "Virgile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vigie vs Virgil". 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 #131,320 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