Which to use
“lees” and “lopes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,538
- “lees” frequency rank
- #44,310
- “lopes” frequency rank
- 71848
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lees | lopes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The sediment that settles during fermentation of beverages, consisting of dead yeast and precipitated parts of the fruit. | plural of lope |
Where the eye mixes lees and lopes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lees runs 4 letters (CVVC) against lopes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses lees with lopes
A purely visual mix-up. lees (/liːz/) and lopes (/loʊps/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71848, 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/. lopes is at rank #44,310, tagged as anoun, pronounced /loʊps/.
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 71848, this pair ranks #45,143 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lees vs lopes
Shared letters: els. Private to "lees": -. Private to "lopes": op.
"lees" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "lopes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lees" for "lopes" ever safe?
Which is more common, "lees" or "lopes"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "lees" and "lopes" 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 "lopes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #45,143 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lees" and "lopes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lope vs lopes". 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 #45,143 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.