Which to use
“leer” is a verb and “lest” is a conjunction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,726
- “leer” frequency rank
- #14,158
- “lest” frequency rank
- 61884
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | leer | lest |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To look sideways or obliquely; now especially with sexual desire or malicious intent. | For fear that; that not; in order to prevent something from happening; in case. |
Where the eye mixes leer and lest
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between leer and lest
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leer is /lɪə/ while lest is /lɛst/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs conjunction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61884, 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/. lest is at rank #14,158, tagged as aconj, pronounced /lɛst/.
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 61884, this pair ranks #91,610 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of leer vs lest
Shared letters: el. Private to "leer": r. Private to "lest": st.
"leer" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "lest" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "leer" for "lest" ever safe?
Frequency check: "leer" vs "lest" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "leer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lest" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #91,610 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "leer" and "lest" 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 #91,610 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.