Which to use
“lute” and “lyre” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,168
- “lute” frequency rank
- #46,595
- “lyre” frequency rank
- 80763
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lute | lyre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A fretted stringed instrument, similar to the guitar, having a bowl-shaped body or soundbox; any of a wide variety of chordophones with a pear-shaped body and a neck whose upper surface is in the same plane as the soundboard, with strings along the neck and parallel to the soundboard. | 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 lute and lyre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lute 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 lute with lyre
A purely visual mix-up. lute (/l(j)uːt/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80763, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lute is recorded at frequency rank #34,168, classified as anoun, pronounced /l(j)uːt/. 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 80763, this pair ranks #19,116 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lute vs lyre
Shared letters: el. Private to "lute": tu. Private to "lyre": ry.
"lute" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lyre" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lute" for "lyre" ever safe?
Which is more common, "lute" or "lyre"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "lute" and "lyre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lute" 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 #19,116 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lute" 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 #19,116 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.