legervslesserWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“leger” and “lesser” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#42,234
“leger” frequency rank
#5,806
“lesser” frequency rank
48040
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leger lesser
Definition Light; slender, slim; trivial. comparative form of little: more little

Where the eye mixes leger and lesser

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
leger
6 ch
lesser

Look-alike desk: leger vs lesser

A purely visual mix-up. leger (/ˈlɛd͡ʒə(ɹ)/) and lesser (/ˈlɛsɚ/) 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 48040, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leger is recorded at frequency rank #42,234, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈlɛd͡ʒə(ɹ)/. lesser is at rank #5,806, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈlɛsɚ/.

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 48040, this pair ranks #196,900 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leger vs lesser

Shared letters: elr. Private to "leger": g. Private to "lesser": s.

"leger" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "lesser" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • legerelger · leegr · legerr · legger · legre · lgeer · lleger
  • lesserelsser · leser · lesesr · lesserr · lessre · llesser · lseser

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "leger" and "lesser" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈlɛd͡ʒə(ɹ)/ versus /ˈlɛsɚ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "leger" or "lesser"?
"lesser" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,806 in our English list, against #42,234 for "leger". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "leger" and "lesser" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lesser" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #196,900 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leger" and "lesser" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laver vs leger". 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 #196,900 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list