vilvsvilaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: vil is a adjective, vila is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“vil” is an adjective and “vila” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,593
“vil” frequency rank
#1,184
“vila” frequency rank
27777
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vil vila
Definition reles povoação de tamanho intermédio entre aldeia e cidade

Where the eye mixes vil and vila

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
vil
4 ch
vila

Look-alike desk: vil vs vila

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vil is /ˈviɫ/ while vila is /ˈvi.lɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “vil” sits inside “vila”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27777, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

vil is recorded at frequency rank #26,593, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈviɫ/. vila is at rank #1,184, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈvi.lɐ/.

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 27777, this pair ranks #41,161 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of vil vs vila

Shared letters: ilv. Private to "vil": -. Private to "vila": a.

"vil" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "vila" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • vilaivla · vial · villa · vlia · vvila

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "vil" and "vila" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "vil" is an adjective and "vila" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "vil" or "vila"?
"vila" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,184 in our Portuguese list, against #26,593 for "vil". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "vil" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "vila" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,161 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vil" and "vila" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "velo vs vil". 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 #41,161 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list