Which to use
“live” and “lived” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #263
- “live” frequency rank
- #1,398
- “lived” frequency rank
- 1661
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | live | lived |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To be alive; to have life. | simple past and past participle of live |
Where the eye mixes live and lived
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. live (/lɪv/) and lived (/lɪvd/) 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 extra letter(s) - “live” sits inside “lived”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
live is recorded at frequency rank #263, classified as averb, pronounced /lɪv/. lived is at rank #1,398, tagged as averb, pronounced /lɪvd/.
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 1661, this pair ranks #526,952 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of live vs lived
Shared letters: eilv. Private to "live": -. Private to "lived": d.
"live" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lived" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC