lirevsloreConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#38,882
“lire” frequency rank
#26,091
“lore” frequency rank
64973
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lire lore
Definition Schriftzeichen, Worte und Texte wahrnehmen, verarbeiten und verstehen Überlieferung

Letter map: lire vs lore

Shared letters muted; letters that set lire and lore apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
lire
4 ch
lore

Role in the sentence - lire and lore

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lire is averb and loreanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - i in “lire” becomes o in “lore”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lire is recorded at frequency rank #38,882, classified as averb, pronounced [liʁ]. lore is at rank #26,091, 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 64973, this pair ranks #622,889 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lire vs lore

Shared letters: elr. Private to "lire": i. Private to "lore": o.

"lire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lore" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lireilre · lier · lirre · llire · lrie
  • lorellore · loer · lorre · lroe · olre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lire" and "lore" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lire" is a verb and "lore" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "lire" or "lore" show up more?
"lore" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,091 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lire" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lore" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #622,889 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lire" and "lore" 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 #622,889 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