# late vs lit

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### late
*adjective · IPA /leɪt/ · frequency rank #456*
Near the end of a period of time.

### lit
*verb · IPA /ˈlɪt/ · frequency rank #5,231*
simple past and past participle of light (“illuminate; start a fire; etc”)

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/late-vs-lit