lipsvslireWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#38,262
“lips” frequency rank
#38,882
“lire” frequency rank
77144
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lips lire
Definition Plural des Substantivs lip Schriftzeichen, Worte und Texte wahrnehmen, verarbeiten und verstehen

Letter map: lips vs lire

Shared letters muted; letters that set lips and lire apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. lips (CVCC) and lire (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
lips
4 ch
lire

Part-of-speech tell for lips / lire

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lips is anoun and lireaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77144, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lips is recorded at frequency rank #38,262, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. 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 77144, this pair ranks #267,470 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lips vs lire

Shared letters: il. Private to "lips": ps. Private to "lire": er.

"lips" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "lire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lips ← ilps · lipps · lipss · lisp · llips · lpis
  • lire ← ilre · lier · lirre · llire · lrie

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lips" for "lire" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lips" is a noun and "lire" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lips" or "lire"?
"lips" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,262 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

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lips" and "lire".

  • Full dictionary entry for "lips" 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 #267,470 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lips" 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 #267,470 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