lowevslyreWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#13,751
“lowe” frequency rank
#46,595
“lyre” frequency rank
60346
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lowe lyre
Definition Alternative form of low ("flame"). 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.

Letter map: lowe vs lyre

Shared letters muted; letters that set lowe and lyre apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
lowe
4 ch
lyre

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

lowe and lyre are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60346, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lowe is recorded at frequency rank #13,751, classified as anoun. 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 60346, this pair ranks #100,678 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lowe vs lyre

Shared letters: el. Private to "lowe": ow. Private to "lyre": ry.

"lowe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lyre" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lowellowe · lowwe · lwoe · olwe
  • lyrellyre · lrye · lyer · lyrre · lyyre · ylre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lowe" and "lyre" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "lowe" or "lyre"?
"lowe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,751 in our English list, against #46,595 for "lyre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list