Which to use
“viril” and “virile” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,889
- “viril” frequency rank
- #34,357
- “virile” frequency rank
- 55246
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | viril | virile |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Qui appartient à l’homme, en tant que mâle. | Féminin singulier de viril. |
Same sound, different letters: viril vs virile
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. viril runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against virile's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - viril and virile
This is the hard kind. viril and virile are pronounced identically (\vi.ʁil\) and both work as anadjective. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “viril” sits inside “virile”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55246, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
viril is recorded at frequency rank #20,889, classified as anadj, pronounced \vi.ʁil\. virile is at rank #34,357, 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 55246, this pair ranks #128,704 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of viril vs virile
Shared letters: ilrv. Private to "viril": -. Private to "virile": e.
"viril" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "virile" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "viril" and "virile" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "viril" or "virile"?
What to do next
You've separated the homophone pair "viril" / "virile". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.
- Full dictionary entry for "viril" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "virile" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #128,704 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "viril" and "virile" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vigie vs virile". 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 #128,704 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.