Which to use
“leer” is a verb and “les” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,726
- “leer” frequency rank
- #6,067
- “les” frequency rank
- 53793
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leer | les |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To look sideways or obliquely; now especially with sexual desire or malicious intent. | Clipping of lesbian. |
Where the eye mixes leer and les
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leer is /lɪə/ while les is /lɛz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53793, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
leer is recorded at frequency rank #47,726, classified as averb, pronounced /lɪə/. les is at rank #6,067, tagged as anadj, pronounced /lɛz/.
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 53793, this pair ranks #146,177 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of leer vs les
Shared letters: el. Private to "leer": r. Private to "les": s.
"leer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "les" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- leer ← eler · leerr · ler · lere · lleer