lilyvslistWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#19,638
“lily” frequency rank
#9,059
“list” frequency rank
28697
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lily list
Definition die Lilie 2. Person Singular Imperativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs listen

Letter map: lily vs list

Shared letters muted; letters that set lily and list apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
lily
4 ch
list

Role in the sentence - lily and list

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lily is anoun and listaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28697, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lily is recorded at frequency rank #19,638, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. list is at rank #9,059, tagged as averb, pronounced [lɪst].

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 28697, this pair ranks #1,780,171 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lily vs list

Shared letters: il. Private to "lily": y. Private to "list": st.

"lily" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "list" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lilyilly · lilly · lilyy · liyl · llily · lliy
  • listilst · lisst · listt · lits · llist · lsit

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lily" and "list" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lily" is a noun and "list" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "lily" or "list" show up more?
"list" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,059 in our German list, against #19,638 for "lily". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lily" and "list".

  • Full dictionary entry for "lily" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "list" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,780,171 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lily" and "list" 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 #1,780,171 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