Which to use
“lice” and “licks” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,140
- “lice” frequency rank
- #25,454
- “licks” frequency rank
- 47594
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lice | licks |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of louse | plural of lick |
Where the eye mixes lice and licks
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lice runs 4 letters (CVCV) against licks's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: lice vs licks
A purely visual mix-up. lice (/laɪs/) and licks (/lɪks/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47594, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lice is recorded at frequency rank #22,140, classified as anoun, pronounced /laɪs/. licks is at rank #25,454, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɪks/.
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 47594, this pair ranks #200,969 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lice vs licks
Shared letters: cil. Private to "lice": e. Private to "licks": ks.
"lice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "licks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lice" and "licks" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "lice" or "licks"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "lice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "licks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #200,969 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lice" and "licks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lice vs LSC". 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 #200,969 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.