lei
/leɪ/
"lei" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lei” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #23,328) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #23,328
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A garland of flowers in Hawaii.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lei · lei · English
lei · rank #23,328 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #23,328
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH leech
Nearest frequency peer: leech (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “lei”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- Larkin
Larkin
76,677 corpus weight
- laziness
laziness
76,675 corpus weight
- leech
leech
76,674 corpus weight
- lei
lei
76,673 corpus weight
- Macquarie
Macquarie
76,671 corpus weight
- madly
madly
76,670 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “lei” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lei |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /leɪ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #23,328 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “lei”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for lei is neighbouring look-alikes ("li", "Lt", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /leɪ/. Frequency #23,328 among 2,297 “L” headwords. Gloss: "A garland of flowers in Hawaii.".
Zero misspellings are on record for lei in our index, and the word's spelling is regular enough that our generator found nothing worth flagging. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "li", "Lt", "lo", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Hawaiian lei. The correct English form is lei, spelled L-E-I.
Definition
- 1A garland of flowers in Hawaii.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how lei appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Both brides and grooms in native Hawaiian tradition wear flower garlands as a physical manifestation of their love for one another, and to some, the twining of the stems is reflective of two families now becoming one. A more tourist-friendly version established in the past couple of decades involves winding the leis around the couple’s hands to bind them…
Etymology
Borrowed from Hawaiian lei.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "lei"?
What does "lei" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "lei"?
How do you pronounce "lei"?
What is the origin of the word "lei"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "lei", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).