Which to use
“lemur” and “lever” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,861
- “lemur” frequency rank
- #12,271
- “lever” frequency rank
- 61132
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lemur | lever |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Any strepsirrhine primate of the superfamily Lemuroidea, native only to Madagascar and some surrounding islands. | A rigid piece which is capable of turning about one point, or axis (fulcrum), and in which are two or more other points where forces are applied; — used for transmitting and modifying force and motion. |
Where the eye mixes lemur and lever
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lemur and lever follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between lemur and lever
A purely visual mix-up. lemur (/ˈliːmə(ɹ)/) and lever (/ˈliː.və/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61132, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lemur is recorded at frequency rank #48,861, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈliːmə(ɹ)/. lever is at rank #12,271, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈliː.və/.
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 61132, this pair ranks #96,019 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lemur vs lever
Shared letters: elr. Private to "lemur": mu. Private to "lever": v.
"lemur" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "lever" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lemur" for "lever" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "lemur" or "lever" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "lemur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lever" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #96,019 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lemur" and "lever" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leer vs lemur". 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 #96,019 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.