leavslemmaTell them apart

Which to use

“lea” and “lemma” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#13,556
“lea” frequency rank
#39,896
“lemma” frequency rank
53452
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lea lemma
Definition An open field, meadow, pasture. A proposition proved or accepted for immediate use in the proof of some other proposition.

Where the eye mixes lea and lemma

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

3 ch
lea
5 ch
lemma

Why the eye confuses lea with lemma

A purely visual mix-up. lea (/liː/) and lemma (/ˈlɛmə/) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53452, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lea is recorded at frequency rank #13,556, classified as anoun, pronounced /liː/. lemma is at rank #39,896, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɛmə/.

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 53452, this pair ranks #148,833 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lea vs lemma

Shared letters: ael. Private to "lea": -. Private to "lemma": m.

"lea" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "lemma" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lemmaelmma · lema · lemam · llemma · lmema

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lea" and "lemma" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/liː/ versus /ˈlɛmə/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lea" vs "lemma" - which ranks higher?
"lea" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,556 in our English list, against #39,896 for "lemma". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lemma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #148,833 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lea" and "lemma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lemma vs lemur". 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 #148,833 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list