vilvsvirilWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“vil” and “viril” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#26,593
“vil” frequency rank
#35,397
“viril” frequency rank
61990
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature vil viril
Definition reles relativo ou próprio de homem

Where the eye mixes vil and viril

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

3 ch
vil
5 ch
viril

Look-alike desk: vil vs viril

A purely visual mix-up. vil (/ˈviɫ/) and viril (/vi.ˈɾiɫ/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61990, 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/. viril is at rank #35,397, tagged as anadj, pronounced /vi.ˈɾiɫ/.

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 61990, this pair ranks #6,877 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of vil vs viril

Shared letters: ilv. Private to "vil": -. Private to "viril": r.

"vil" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "viril" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • virilivril · viirl · virill · virli · virril · vriil · vviril

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "vil" for "viril" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈviɫ/ versus /vi.ˈɾiɫ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "vil" or "viril"?
"vil" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,593 in our Portuguese list, against #35,397 for "viril". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "vil" and "viril" 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 "viril" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,877 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "vil" and "viril" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "viril vs vitral". 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 #6,877 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