Which to use
“lies” is a verb and “lips” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,620
- “lies” frequency rank
- #38,262
- “lips” frequency rank
- 43882
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lies | lips |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs lesen | Plural des Substantivs lip |
Letter map: lies vs lips
Shared letters muted; letters that set lies and lips apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for lies / lips
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lies is averb and lipsanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “lies” becomes p in “lips”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43882, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lies is recorded at frequency rank #5,620, classified as averb, pronounced [liːs]. lips is at rank #38,262, tagged as anoun, 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 43882, this pair ranks #1,403,955 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lies vs lips
Shared letters: ils. Private to "lies": e. Private to "lips": p.
"lies" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "lips" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lies" for "lips" ever safe?
Which is more common, "lies" or "lips"?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lies" and "lips".
- Full dictionary entry for "lies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lips" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,403,955 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lies" and "lips" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lips vs puzzles". 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 #1,403,955 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.