lie
/laɪ̯/
"lie" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lie” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,530 in English word frequency and used as a verb.
- #1,530
- frequency rank, English
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - To rest in a horizontal position on a surface.
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 | lie |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /laɪ̯/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #1,530 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lie” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for lie is 3 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /laɪ̯/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,530 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 9 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Zero misspellings are on record for lie in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Lt", "lo", "LP", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English lien, liggen, from Old English liċġan, from Proto-West Germanic *liggjan, from Proto-Germanic *ligjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-. Cognates Cognate with Yola lee, lidge (“to lie”), leigh, leiough (“to idle”), North Frisian lade, la… The correct English form is lie, spelled L-I-E.
Definition
- 1To rest in a horizontal position on a surface.
- 2To be placed or situated.
- 3To abide; to remain for a longer or shorter time; to be in a certain state or condition.
- 4Used with in: to be or exist; to belong or pertain; to have an abiding place; to consist.
- 5Used with with: to have sexual relations with.
- 6Used with on/upon: to be incumbent (on); to be the responsibility of a person.
- 7To lodge; to sleep.
- 8To be still or quiet, like one lying down to rest.
- 9To be sustainable; to be capable of being maintained.
Etymology
From Middle English lien, liggen, from Old English liċġan, from Proto-West Germanic *liggjan, from Proto-Germanic *ligjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ-. Cognates Cognate with Yola lee, lidge (“to lie”), leigh, leiough (“to idle”), North Frisian lade, lai, laie, lei, lii, läde, läie (“to lie; to lay”), Saterland Frisian lääse (“to lie; to lay”), West Frisian lizze (“to lie”), Alemannic German ligge (“to lie”), Central Franconian lijje (“to lie”), Dutch and Dutch Low Saxon liggen (“to lie”), German liegen (“to lie”), German Low German ligge, liggen (“to lie”), Luxembourgish leien (“to lie”), Yiddish ליגן (lign, “to lie”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål ligge (“to lie”), Faroese and Icelandic liggja (“to lie”), Norwegian Nynorsk ligge, liggja, liggje (“to lie”), Swedish ligga (“to lie”), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌲𐌰𐌽 (ligan, “to lie, to rest”); and with Irish laigh, luigh (“to lie”), Manx lhie (“lie; lay”), Scottish Gaelic laigh (“lie; lay”), Faliscan 𐌋𐌄𐌂𐌄𐌕 (lecet, “he lies down”), Latin lectus (“bed”), South Picene 𐌅𐌄𐌉𐌀𐌕 (veiat, “to lie”), Ancient Greek λέχομαι (lékhomai, “to lie down”), Albanian lag (“band, encampment, troop”), Belarusian ляжа́ць (ljažácʹ, “to lie”), Bulgarian лежа́ (ležá, “to lie”), Czech ležet (“to lie”), Macedonian лежи (leži, “to lie”), Polish leżeć (“to lie”), Russian лежа́ть (ležátʹ, “to lie”), Serbo-Croatian лѐжати, lèžati (“to lie”), Slovene ležáti (“to lie”), Ukrainian лежа́ти (ležáty, “to lie”), Tocharian B lyäk- (“to lie”). As a noun for position, the noun has the same etymology above as the verb.
This word in other languages
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
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Using “lie”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-I-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /laɪ̯/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Lt” - see the side-by-side comparison. lie vs Lt
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.