Which to use
“lee” is a noun and “leer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,905
- “lee” frequency rank
- #47,726
- “leer” frequency rank
- 49631
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lee | leer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A protected cove or harbor, out of the wind. | To look sideways or obliquely; now especially with sexual desire or malicious intent. |
Where the eye mixes lee and leer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lee vs leer
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lee is /liː/ while leer is /lɪə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “lee” sits inside “leer”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49631, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lee is recorded at frequency rank #1,905, classified as anoun, pronounced /liː/. leer is at rank #47,726, tagged as averb, pronounced /lɪə/.
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 49631, this pair ranks #181,817 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lee vs leer
Shared letters: el. Private to "lee": -. Private to "leer": r.
"lee" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "leer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- leer ← eler · leerr · ler · lere · lleer
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lee" and "leer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "lee" or "leer"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "lee" and "leer" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lee" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #181,817 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lee" and "leer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leer vs lel". 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 #181,817 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.