lies vs lists, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“lies” and “lists” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,906
“lies” frequency rank: #3,767
“lists” frequency rank: 5673
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	lies	lists
Definition	plural of lie	plural of list

Where the eye mixes lies and lists

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch

lies

5 ch

lists

Visual trap between lies and lists

A purely visual mix-up. lies (/laɪz/) and lists (/lɪsts/) 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 5673, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lies is recorded at frequency rank #1,906, classified as anoun, pronounced /laɪz/. lists is at rank #3,767, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɪsts/.

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 5673, this pair ranks #514,399 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lies vs lists

Shared letters: ils. Private to "lies": e. Private to "lists": t.

"lies" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "lists" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

lies ← iles · leis · liess · llies
lists ← ilsts · lissts · listss · listts · litss · llists · lsits

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lies" and "lists" mean the same thing in a sentence?

No. They are said differently (/laɪz/ versus /lɪsts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "lies" or "lists"?

"lies" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,906 in our English list, against #3,767 for "lists". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

Full dictionary entry for "lies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "lists" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #514,399 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"lies" and "lists" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lel vs lies". 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 #514,399 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.