lepersvsLewesConfusable pair

Quick tell: lepers is a noun, Lewes is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lepers” is a noun and “Lewes” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,323
“lepers” frequency rank
#34,958
“Lewes” frequency rank
83281
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lepers Lewes
Definition plural of leper A surname.

Where the eye mixes lepers and Lewes

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

6 ch
lepers
5 ch
Lewes

Look-alike desk: lepers vs Lewes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lepers is /ˈlɛpɚz/ while Lewes is /ˈluː.ɪs/. 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 (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83281, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lepers is recorded at frequency rank #48,323, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɛpɚz/. Lewes is at rank #34,958, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈluː.ɪs/.

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 83281, this pair ranks #14,127 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lepers vs Lewes

Shared letters: els. Private to "lepers": pr. Private to "Lewes": w.

"lepers" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC  ·  "Lewes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lepers ← elpers · leeprs · leperrs · leperss · lepesr · leppers · lepres · llepers
  • Lewes ← elwes · leews · lewess · lewse · lewwes · llewes · lwees

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lepers" for "Lewes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lepers" is a noun and "Lewes" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "lepers" or "Lewes" show up more?
"Lewes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,958 in our English list, against #48,323 for "lepers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lepers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Lewes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,127 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lepers" and "Lewes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leery vs lepers". 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 #14,127 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