leervslexWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#2,116
“leer” frequency rank
#12,961
“lex” frequency rank
15077
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leer lex
Definition (fast) ohne (physischen) Inhalt das Recht, das Gesetz, die Gesetzessammlung

Letter map: leer vs lex

Shared letters muted; letters that set leer and lex apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
leer
3 ch
lex

Role in the sentence - leer and lex

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leer is anadjective and lexanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15077, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leer is recorded at frequency rank #2,116, classified as anadj, pronounced [leːɐ̯]. lex is at rank #12,961, tagged as anoun.

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 15077, this pair ranks #1,946,566 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of leer vs lex

Shared letters: el. Private to "leer": r. Private to "lex": x.

"leer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "lex" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leereler · leerr · ler · lere · lleer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leer" for "lex" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leer" is an adjective and "lex" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "leer" vs "lex" - which ranks higher?
"leer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,116 in our German list, against #12,961 for "lex". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "leer" and "lex".

  • Full dictionary entry for "leer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lex" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,946,566 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leer" and "lex" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lees vs lex". 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 #1,946,566 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list