Which to use
“lees” and “lepers” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,538
- “lees” frequency rank
- #48,323
- “lepers” frequency rank
- 75861
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lees | lepers |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The sediment that settles during fermentation of beverages, consisting of dead yeast and precipitated parts of the fruit. | plural of leper |
Where the eye mixes lees and lepers
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lees vs lepers
A purely visual mix-up. lees (/liːz/) and lepers (/ˈlɛpɚz/) 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 75861, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lees is recorded at frequency rank #27,538, classified as anoun, pronounced /liːz/. lepers is at rank #48,323, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɛpɚz/.
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 75861, this pair ranks #31,809 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lees vs lepers
Shared letters: els. Private to "lees": -. Private to "lepers": pr.
"lees" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "lepers" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lees" and "lepers" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "lees" or "lepers" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "lees" and "lepers" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lees" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lepers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #31,809 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lees" and "lepers" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leery vs lepers". 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 #31,809 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.