LillivslilyWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Lilli is a name, lily is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Lilli” is a name and “lily” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,819
“Lilli” frequency rank
#19,638
“lily” frequency rank
44457
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lilli lily
Definition weiblicher Vorname die Lilie

Letter map: Lilli vs lily

Shared letters muted; letters that set Lilli and lily apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
Lilli
4 ch
lily

Role in the sentence - Lilli and lily

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Lilli is aname and lilyanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lilli is recorded at frequency rank #24,819, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈlɪli]. lily is at rank #19,638, 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 44457, this pair ranks #1,385,589 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Lilli vs lily

Shared letters: il. Private to "Lilli": -. Private to "lily": y.

"Lilli" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "lily" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lilliillli · lili · lilil · llili · llilli
  • lilyilly · lilly · lilyy · liyl · llily · lliy

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Lilli" and "lily" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lilli" is a name and "lily" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Lilli" or "lily"?
"lily" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,638 in our German list, against #24,819 for "Lilli". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "Lilli" and "lily". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lilli" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lily" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,385,589 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lilli" and "lily" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lily 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 #1,385,589 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