Which to use
“lyre” is a noun and “lyric” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,595
- “lyre” frequency rank
- #12,460
- “lyric” frequency rank
- 59055
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lyre | lyric |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Of, or relating to a type of poetry (such as a sonnet or ode) that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings, often in a songlike style. |
Where the eye mixes lyre and lyric
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lyre vs lyric
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lyre is /ˈlaɪ.ə/ while lyric is /ˈlɪɹɪk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59055, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lyre is recorded at frequency rank #46,595, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlaɪ.ə/. lyric is at rank #12,460, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈlɪɹɪk/.
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 59055, this pair ranks #108,585 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lyre vs lyric
Shared letters: lry. Private to "lyre": e. Private to "lyric": ci.
"lyre" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lyric" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lyre" and "lyric" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "lyre" or "lyric"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "lyre" and "lyric" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lyre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lyric" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #108,585 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lyre" and "lyric" 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 #108,585 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.