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PlainSpell

lye

/laɪ/noun, verb

lye is spelled L-Y-E: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,703rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “lie vs lye” about 590 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, lye means “An alkaline liquid made by leaching ashes (usually wood ashes)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of lye is lyes.

How many letters and syllables are in lye?

Letters3: L-Y-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 2 million words; the 40,703rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is lye?

Lye appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 40,703rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce lye?

  • /laɪ/

Lye has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vininn126-lye.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with lye

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

lie vs lye590 G

Sounds like: lai (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: lie.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with lye?

No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as lye.

Spelled with the same letters in another order: ley.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of lye

  • lyes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • lyeing participle, present
  • lyed participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does lye mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    An alkaline liquid made by leaching ashes (usually wood ashes).

  2. 2

    Potassium or sodium hydroxide (caustic soda).

  3. 3

    obsoleteObsolete spelling of lie.

  4. 4

    UKA short side line, connected with the main line; a turn-out; a siding.

verb

  1. 1

    To treat with lye.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Lye in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchsoude, soude caustique, potasse caustique, potasse (caustic alkaline solution), hydroxyde de sodium (potassium or sodium hydroxide)
GermanLauge (caustic alkaline solution), Ätznatron, kaustisches Soda (potassium or sodium hydroxide)
Portugueselixívia (caustic alkaline solution), soda cáustica (potassium or sodium hydroxide)
Spanishlejía de ceniza, [el] agua de ceniza, jabón / detergente de ceniza, llicta, llipta, llijta / llucta (caustic alkaline solution)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does lye come from?

From Middle English leye, lye, from Old English lēah, lēag (“lye”), from Proto-West Germanic *laugu, from Proto-Germanic *laugō, from Proto-Indo-European *lewh₃- (“to wash”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Loge, Looie (“lye”), Dutch loog (“lye”), German Low German Loge, Loje, Loog (“lye”), German Lauge (“lye”). Compare typologically Ancient Greek ῥύμμα (rhúmma) < ῥύπτω (rhúptō, “to cleanse, to wash”); Russian м́ыло (ḿylo) (a nomen instrumenti of мыть (mytʹ)).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after lye