lisvsLustConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#38,263
“lis” frequency rank
#1,205
“Lust” frequency rank
39468
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lis Lust
Definition Stieleiche Verlangen, Wunsch nach etwas

Where the eye mixes lis and Lust

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
lis
4 ch
Lust

Why the eye confuses lis with Lust

A purely visual mix-up. lis ([lis]) and Lust ([lʊst]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39468, 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]. Lust is at rank #1,205, tagged as anoun, pronounced [lʊst].

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 39468, this pair ranks #1,535,965 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lis vs Lust

Shared letters: ls. Private to "lis": i. Private to "Lust": tu.

"lis" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Lust" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lustllust · lsut · lusst · lustt · luts · ulst

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lis" and "Lust" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([lis] versus [lʊst]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lis" or "Lust"?
"Lust" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,205 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

Eye-level mix-up between "lis" and "Lust" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Lust" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,535,965 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lis" and "Lust" 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 #1,535,965 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