visvsvomTell them apart

Quick tell: vis is a noun, vom is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vis” is a noun and “vom” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#993
“vis” frequency rank
#47,100
“vom” frequency rank
48093
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vis vom
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. Contraction de von dem: du..

Where the eye mixes vis and vom

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
vis
3 ch
vom

Why the eye confuses vis with vom

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vis is \vis\ while vom is \fɔm\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48093, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vis is recorded at frequency rank #993, classified as anoun, pronounced \vis\. vom is at rank #47,100, tagged as aprep, pronounced \fɔm\.

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 48093, this pair ranks #181,694 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vis vs vom

Shared letters: v. Private to "vis": is. Private to "vom": mo.

"vis" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "vom" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "vis" and "vom" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vis" is a noun and "vom" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "vis" or "vom" show up more?
"vis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #993 in our French list, against #47,100 for "vom". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "vis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vom" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #181,694 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vis" and "vom" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "viv vs vom". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #181,694 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