leitevslireWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#21,339
“leite” frequency rank
#38,882
“lire” frequency rank
60221
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leite lire
Definition 1. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs leiten Schriftzeichen, Worte und Texte wahrnehmen, verarbeiten und verstehen

Where the eye mixes leite and lire

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

5 ch
leite
4 ch
lire

Visual trap between leite and lire

A purely visual mix-up. leite ([ˈlaɪ̯tə]) and lire ([liʁ]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60221, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leite is recorded at frequency rank #21,339, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈlaɪ̯tə]. 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 60221, this pair ranks #795,145 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leite vs lire

Shared letters: eil. Private to "leite": t. Private to "lire": r.

"leite" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "lire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leiteelite · leiet · letie · liete · lleite
  • lireilre · lier · lirre · llire · lrie

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leite" for "lire" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈlaɪ̯tə] versus [liʁ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "leite" or "lire"?
"leite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,339 in our German list, against #38,882 for "lire". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leite" 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 #795,145 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leite" 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 #795,145 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