Which to use
“live” and “lives” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #263
- “live” frequency rank
- #748
- “lives” frequency rank
- 1011
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | live | lives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To be alive; to have life. | third-person singular simple present indicative of live |
Where the eye mixes live and lives
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. live (/lɪv/) and lives (/lɪvz/) 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 “lives”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1011, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
live is recorded at frequency rank #263, classified as averb, pronounced /lɪv/. lives is at rank #748, tagged as averb, pronounced /lɪvz/.
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 1011, this pair ranks #528,310 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of live vs lives
Shared letters: eilv. Private to "live": -. Private to "lives": s.
"live" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lives" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC