Which to use
“libre” is an adjective and “lire” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #34,570
- “libre” frequency rank
- #33,310
- “lire” frequency rank
- 67880
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | libre | lire |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Especially of the will: free, independent, unconstrained. | Flesh, brawn, or muscle; the fleshy part of a person or animal in contradistinction to the bone and skin. |
Letter map: libre vs lire
Shared letters muted; letters that set libre and lire apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.
Role in the sentence - libre and lire
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: libre is anadjective and lireanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67880, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
libre is recorded at frequency rank #34,570, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈliːbɹə/. lire is at rank #33,310, 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 67880, this pair ranks #61,384 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of libre vs lire
Shared letters: eilr. Private to "libre": b. Private to "lire": -.
"libre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "lire" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "libre" for "lire" ever safe?
Frequency check: "libre" vs "lire" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pair "libre" vs "lire" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "libre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lire" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #61,384 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "libre" and "lire" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lire vs lope". 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 #61,384 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.