Which to use
“lure” and “lyre” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,738
- “lure” frequency rank
- #46,595
- “lyre” frequency rank
- 58333
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lure | lyre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Something that tempts or attracts, especially one with a promise of reward or pleasure. | 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 eye mixes lure and lyre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lure and lyre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses lure with lyre
A purely visual mix-up. lure (/lʊə/) and lyre (/ˈlaɪ.ə/) 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 - u in “lure” becomes y in “lyre”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58333, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lure is recorded at frequency rank #11,738, classified as anoun, pronounced /lʊə/. 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 58333, this pair ranks #113,276 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lure vs lyre
Shared letters: elr. Private to "lure": u. Private to "lyre": y.
"lure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lyre" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lure" and "lyre" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "lure" or "lyre" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "lure" and "lyre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lyre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #113,276 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lure" and "lyre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lope vs lyre". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #113,276 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.