Which to use
“lyra” and “lyre” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #34,971
- “lyra” frequency rank
- #46,595
- “lyre” frequency rank
- 81566
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lyra | lyre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The middle portion of the ventral surface of the fornix of the brain. | 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: lyra vs lyre
Shared letters muted; letters that set lyra and lyre apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. lyra and lyre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Spelling & dictionary notes on lyra vs lyre
lyra 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 differ by a single letter - a in “lyra” becomes e in “lyre”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81566, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lyra is recorded at frequency rank #34,971, 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 81566, this pair ranks #17,439 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lyra vs lyre
Shared letters: lry. Private to "lyra": a. Private to "lyre": e.
"lyra" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lyre" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lyra" for "lyre" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lyra" vs "lyre" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
You've compared "lyra" and "lyre". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "lyra" 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 #17,439 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lyra" 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 #17,439 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.