legervslodgerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: leger is a adjective, lodger is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“leger” is an adjective and “lodger” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,234
“leger” frequency rank
#48,331
“lodger” frequency rank
90565
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leger lodger
Definition Light; slender, slim; trivial. A person who lodges in another's house (compare tenant).

Where the eye mixes leger and lodger

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. leger runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against lodger's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
leger
6 ch
lodger

Look-alike desk: leger vs lodger

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: leger is /ˈlɛd͡ʒə(ɹ)/ while lodger is /ˈlɑd͡ʒɚ/. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90565, 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)/. lodger is at rank #48,331, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɑd͡ʒɚ/.

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 90565, this pair ranks #4,066 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of leger vs lodger

Shared letters: eglr. Private to "leger": -. Private to "lodger": do.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leger ← elger · leegr · legerr · legger · legre · lgeer · lleger
  • lodger ← ldoger · llodger · loddger · lodegr · lodgerr · lodgger · lodgre · logder

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leger" for "lodger" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leger" is an adjective and "lodger" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "leger" vs "lodger" - which ranks higher?
"leger" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #42,234 in our English list, against #48,331 for "lodger". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leger" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lodger" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,066 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leger" and "lodger" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lodger vs luger". 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 #4,066 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