volesvsvoltsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,652
“voles” frequency rank
#21,813
“volts” frequency rank
58465
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature voles volts
Definition Pluriel de vole. Pluriel de volt.

Where the eye mixes voles and volts

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. voles (CVCVC) and volts (CVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
voles
5 ch
volts

Look-alike desk: voles vs volts

A purely visual mix-up. voles (\vɔl\) and volts (\vɔlt\) 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 a single letter - e in “voles” becomes t in “volts”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58465, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

voles is recorded at frequency rank #36,652, classified as anoun, pronounced \vɔl\. volts is at rank #21,813, tagged as anoun, pronounced \vɔlt\.

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 58465, this pair ranks #108,923 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of voles vs volts

Shared letters: losv. Private to "voles": e. Private to "volts": t.

"voles" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "volts" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • voles ← ovles · vloes · voels · voless · volles · volse · vvoles
  • volts ← ovlts · vlots · vollts · volst · voltss · voltts · votls · vvolts

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "voles" and "volts" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\vɔl\ versus \vɔlt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "voles" vs "volts" - which ranks higher?
"volts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,813 in our French list, against #36,652 for "voles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "voles" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "volts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #108,923 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "voles" and "volts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "voles vs Voss". 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 #108,923 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