LiedvslipTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,606
“Lied” frequency rank
#36,485
“lip” frequency rank
38091
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lied lip
Definition gesungenes Musikstück Lippe

Where the eye mixes Lied and lip

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Lied
3 ch
lip

Look-alike desk: Lied vs lip

A purely visual mix-up. Lied ([liːt]) and lip ([lɪp]) 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 38091, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lied is recorded at frequency rank #1,606, classified as anoun, pronounced [liːt]. lip is at rank #36,485, tagged as anoun, pronounced [lɪp].

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 38091, this pair ranks #1,573,057 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Lied vs lip

Shared letters: il. Private to "Lied": de. Private to "lip": p.

"Lied" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "lip" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Liediled · lide · liedd · llied

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Lied" for "lip" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([liːt] versus [lɪp]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Lied" vs "lip" - which ranks higher?
"Lied" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,606 in our German list, against #36,485 for "lip". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lied" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lip" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,573,057 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lied" and "lip" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lai vs lip". 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 #1,573,057 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