Which to use
“virgin” and “viril” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,037
- “virgin” frequency rank
- #20,889
- “viril” frequency rank
- 37926
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | virgin | viril |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Vierge, virginal. | Qui appartient à l’homme, en tant que mâle. |
Where the eye mixes virgin and viril
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between virgin and viril
A purely visual mix-up. virgin (\ˈvɝ.dʒɪn\) and viril (\vi.ʁil\) 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 37926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
virgin is recorded at frequency rank #17,037, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈvɝ.dʒɪn\. viril is at rank #20,889, tagged as anadj, pronounced \vi.ʁil\.
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 37926, this pair ranks #258,985 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of virgin vs viril
Shared letters: irv. Private to "virgin": gn. Private to "viril": l.
"virgin" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "viril" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "virgin" and "viril" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "virgin" or "viril" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "virgin" and "viril" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "virgin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "viril" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #258,985 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "virgin" and "viril" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vial vs viril". 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 #258,985 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.