Which to use
“lease” and “louse” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,432
- “lease” frequency rank
- #47,167
- “louse” frequency rank
- 52599
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lease | louse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An interest in land granting exclusive use or occupation of real estate for a limited period; a leasehold. | A small parasitic wingless insect of the order Psocodea. |
Where the eye mixes lease and louse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lease and louse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses lease with louse
A purely visual mix-up. lease (/liːs/) and louse (/laʊs/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52599, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lease is recorded at frequency rank #5,432, classified as anoun, pronounced /liːs/. louse is at rank #47,167, tagged as anoun, pronounced /laʊs/.
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 52599, this pair ranks #155,727 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lease vs louse
Shared letters: els. Private to "lease": a. Private to "louse": ou.
"lease" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "louse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lease" and "louse" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "lease" vs "louse" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "lease" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "louse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #155,727 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lease" and "louse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lope vs louse". 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 #155,727 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.