Which to use
“lived” and “lives” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,398
- “lived” frequency rank
- #748
- “lives” frequency rank
- 2146
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lived | lives |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of live | third-person singular simple present indicative of live |
Where the eye mixes lived and lives
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. lived (/lɪvd/) 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 a single letter - d in “lived” becomes s in “lives”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2146, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lived is recorded at frequency rank #1,398, classified as averb, pronounced /lɪvd/. 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 2146, this pair ranks #525,750 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lived vs lives
Shared letters: eilv. Private to "lived": d. Private to "lives": s.
"lived" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "lives" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC