lipavslipsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,730
“lipa” frequency rank
#3,958
“lips” frequency rank
51688
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lipa lips
Definition A former subdivision of currency, equal to one hundredth of a Croatian kuna. plural of lip

Where the eye mixes lipa and lips

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

4 ch
lipa
4 ch
lips

Visual trap between lipa and lips

A purely visual mix-up. lipa (/ˈlipə/) and lips (/lɪps/) 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 a single letter - a in “lipa” becomes s in “lips”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51688, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lipa is recorded at frequency rank #47,730, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlipə/. lips is at rank #3,958, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɪps/.

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 51688, this pair ranks #163,369 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lipa vs lips

Shared letters: ilp. Private to "lipa": a. Private to "lips": s.

"lipa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lips" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lipailpa · liap · lippa · llipa · lpia
  • lipsilps · lipps · lipss · llips · lpis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lipa" for "lips" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈlipə/ versus /lɪps/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "lipa" or "lips" show up more?
"lips" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,958 in our English list, against #47,730 for "lipa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lipa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lips" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #163,369 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lipa" and "lips" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lipa 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 #163,369 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