LewesvslifesWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#34,958
“Lewes” frequency rank
#31,638
“lifes” frequency rank
66596
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lewes lifes
Definition A surname. plural of life

Letter map: Lewes vs lifes

Shared letters muted; letters that set Lewes and lifes apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Lewes and lifes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
Lewes
5 ch
lifes

Grammar separator: Lewes vs lifes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Lewes is aname and lifesanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66596, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lewes is recorded at frequency rank #34,958, classified as aname, pronounced /ˈluː.ɪs/. lifes is at rank #31,638, tagged as anoun.

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 66596, this pair ranks #67,267 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Lewes vs lifes

Shared letters: els. Private to "Lewes": w. Private to "lifes": fi.

"Lewes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "lifes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lewes ← elwes · leews · lewess · lewse · lewwes · llewes · lwees
  • lifes ← ilfes · liefs · lifess · liffes · lifse · llifes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Lewes" for "lifes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lewes" is a name and "lifes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Lewes" vs "lifes" - which ranks higher?
"lifes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,638 in our English list, against #34,958 for "Lewes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "Lewes" and "lifes". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lewes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lifes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,267 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lewes" and "lifes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lepers vs Lewes". 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 #67,267 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