LeesvsLeosWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“Lees” and “Leos” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#49,048
“Lees” frequency rank
#46,110
“Leos” frequency rank
95158
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lees Leos
Definition Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Lee Genitiv Singular des Substantivs Leo

Where the eye mixes Lees and Leos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Lees and Leos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
Lees
4 ch
Leos

Look-alike desk: Lees vs Leos

A purely visual mix-up. Lees ([leːs]) and Leos ([ˈleːos]) 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 “Lees” becomes o in “Leos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 95158, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lees is recorded at frequency rank #49,048, classified as anoun, pronounced [leːs]. Leos is at rank #46,110, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈleːos].

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 95158, this pair ranks #12,950 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Lees vs Leos

Shared letters: els. Private to "Lees": -. Private to "Leos": o.

"Lees" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "Leos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lees ← eles · leess · llees
  • Leos ← elos · leoss · leso · lleos

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Lees" and "Leos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([leːs] versus [ˈleːos]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Lees" or "Leos"?
"Leos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,110 in our German list, against #49,048 for "Lees". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lees" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Leos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,950 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lees" and "Leos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lees vs Loses". 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 #12,950 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