legervslowerWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: leger is a adjective, lower is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“leger” is an adjective and “lower” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,108
“leger” frequency rank
#32,156
“lower” frequency rank
78264
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leger lower
Definition leicht, bequem (meist in Zusammenhang mit Kleidung) niederlassen, niedrig machen, runtermachen

Letter map: leger vs lower

Shared letters muted; letters that set leger and lower apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
leger
5 ch
lower

Role in the sentence - leger and lower

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leger is anadjective and loweraverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78264, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leger is recorded at frequency rank #46,108, classified as anadj, pronounced [leˈʒɛːɐ̯]. lower is at rank #32,156, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 78264, this pair ranks #242,199 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of leger vs lower

Shared letters: elr. Private to "leger": g. Private to "lower": ow.

"leger" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "lower" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • legerelger · leegr · legerr · legger · legre · lgeer · lleger
  • lowerllower · loewr · lowerr · lowre · lowwer · lwoer · olwer

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "leger" and "lower" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leger" is an adjective and "lower" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "leger" or "lower" show up more?
"lower" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,156 in our German list, against #46,108 for "leger". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "leger" and "lower".

  • Full dictionary entry for "leger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lower" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #242,199 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leger" and "lower" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lees vs leger". 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 #242,199 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