LEMvslentWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#35,810
“LEM” frequency rank
#10,389
“lent” frequency rank
46199
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature LEM lent
Definition Originally Lunar Excursion Module, latterly Lunar Module. Alternative letter-case form of Lent.

Letter map: LEM vs lent

Shared letters muted; letters that set LEM and lent apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. LEM runs 3 letters (CVC) against lent's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
LEM
4 ch
lent

Spelling & dictionary notes on LEM vs lent

LEM and lent are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46199, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

LEM is recorded at frequency rank #35,810, classified as anoun. lent is at rank #10,389, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɛnt/.

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 46199, this pair ranks #214,029 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of LEM vs lent

Shared letters: el. Private to "LEM": m. Private to "lent": nt.

"LEM" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lent" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lent ← elnt · lennt · lentt · letn · llent · lnet

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "LEM" and "lent" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary English text, does "LEM" or "lent" show up more?
"lent" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,389 in our English list, against #35,810 for "LEM". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "LEM" and "lent". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "LEM" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lent" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #214,029 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "LEM" and "lent" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "LEM vs LSC". 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 #214,029 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