visvsvitoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#993
“vis” frequency rank
#24,437
“vito” frequency rank
25430
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vis vito
Definition Pièce mécanique formée d’un corps qui comporte un filet de forme hélicoïdale et une tête où une empreinte permet d’appliquer un couple ; il en résulte un double mouvement de rotation et de translation. En mécanique, elles sont souvent employées avec des écrous pour former des boulons. Vigne, genre Vitis.

Where the eye mixes vis and vito

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
vis
4 ch
vito

Look-alike desk: vis vs vito

A purely visual mix-up. vis (\vis\) and vito (\ˈvi.to\) 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 25430, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vis is recorded at frequency rank #993, classified as anoun, pronounced \vis\. vito is at rank #24,437, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈvi.to\.

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 25430, this pair ranks #340,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of vis vs vito

Shared letters: iv. Private to "vis": s. Private to "vito": ot.

"vis" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "vito" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vitoivto · vitto · vtio · vvito

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vis" for "vito" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\vis\ versus \ˈvi.to\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "vis" or "vito"?
"vis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #993 in our French list, against #24,437 for "vito". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "vis" and "vito" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vito" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #340,920 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vis" and "vito" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vito vs viv". 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 #340,920 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