Which to use
“lake” is a noun and “lire” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,319
- “lake” frequency rank
- #38,882
- “lire” frequency rank
- 49201
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lake | lire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Stillgewässer, das vollständig von einer Landfläche umgeben ist; See | Schriftzeichen, Worte und Texte wahrnehmen, verarbeiten und verstehen |
Where the eye mixes lake and lire
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lake and lire follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses lake with lire
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lake is [leɪk] while lire is [liʁ]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49201, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lake is recorded at frequency rank #10,319, classified as anoun, pronounced [leɪk]. lire is at rank #38,882, tagged as averb, pronounced [liʁ].
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 49201, this pair ranks #1,220,325 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lake vs lire
Shared letters: el. Private to "lake": ak. Private to "lire": ir.
"lake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lake" and "lire" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "lake" or "lire" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "lake" and "lire" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lake" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,220,325 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lake" and "lire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lame vs lire". 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 #1,220,325 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.