lisvsListeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“lis” and “Liste” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#38,263
“lis” frequency rank
#957
“Liste” frequency rank
39220
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lis Liste
Definition Stieleiche ein schriftliches Verzeichnis, in dem mehrere Punkte in einer bestimmten Reihenfolge aufgeführt sind

Where the eye mixes lis and Liste

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
lis
5 ch
Liste

Look-alike desk: lis vs Liste

A purely visual mix-up. lis ([lis]) and Liste ([ˈlɪstə]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “lis” sits inside “Liste”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39220, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lis is recorded at frequency rank #38,263, classified as anoun, pronounced [lis]. Liste is at rank #957, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlɪstə].

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 39220, this pair ranks #1,542,745 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lis vs Liste

Shared letters: ils. Private to "lis": -. Private to "Liste": et.

"lis" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Liste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Listeilste · liset · lisste · listte · litse · lliste · lsite

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lis" and "Liste" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([lis] versus [ˈlɪstə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "lis" or "Liste" show up more?
"Liste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #957 in our German list, against #38,263 for "lis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Liste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,542,745 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lis" and "Liste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lees vs lis". 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 #1,542,745 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