Liar or lier?
liar is a noun meaning “Someone who tells a lie; especially, a person who frequently lies”; lier is a noun meaning “A person or thing that lies, in the sense of being horizontal”. They sound the same (/ˈlaɪ.ə/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) liar is about 41 times as common as lier.
What is the difference between liar and lier?
| liar | lier | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, suffix |
| Meaning | Someone who tells a lie; especially, a person who frequently lies | A person or thing that lies, in the sense of being horizontal A lie-abed; one who stays in bed late |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | liars | liers |
| Pronunciation | /ˈlaɪ.ə/ /ˈlaɪ.ɚ/ | /ˈlaɪ.ə/ /ˈlaɪ.ɚ/ |
| In writing | 10 times per million words | about once in every 4 million words |
Sources: liar and lier in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of liar and lier
liar
- 1
Someone who tells a lie; especially, a person who frequently lies
lier
- 1
A person or thing that lies, in the sense of being horizontal
- 2
A lie-abed; one who stays in bed late
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, liar or lier?
liar appears 10 times per million words; lier about once in every 4 million words.
liar 10 times per million wordslier about once in every 4 million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search liar vs lier?
“liar vs lier” is searched about 20 times a month on Bing (Google reports it together with close variants, so it has no figure of its own) in the United States.
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.