Which to use
“love” and “lyre” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #147
- “love” frequency rank
- #46,595
- “lyre” frequency rank
- 46742
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | love | lyre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A deep caring for the existence of another. | An ancient stringed musical instrument (a yoke lute chordophone) of Greek origin, consisting of two arms extending from a body to a crossbar (a yoke), and strings, parallel to the soundboard, connecting the body to the yoke. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set love and lyre apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
love and lyre form a confusable pair in the English index, two distinct headwords that are easily confused because they look alike, sound alike, or both. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions - close enough that the eye skips over the difference, far enough that meaning fully diverges. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46742, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
love is recorded at frequency rank #147, classified as anoun, pronounced /lʌv/. lyre is at rank #46,595, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlaɪ.ə/.
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 46742, this pair ranks #208,903 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "love" and "lyre" be used interchangeably?
Remembering love vs lyre
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “love” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable