lyric
/ˈlɪɹɪk/
"lyric" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lyric” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #12,460. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #12,460
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - 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.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lyric · lyric · English
lyric · rank #12,460 · 8 variants · 9 confusables
- FREQ-MID #12,460
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 9 pairs
- VAR-MID 8 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH lizard
Nearest frequency peer: lizard (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “lyric”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- legitimacy
legitimacy
87,544 corpus weight
- LinkedIn
LinkedIn
87,543 corpus weight
- lizard
lizard
87,542 corpus weight
- lyric
lyric
87,541 corpus weight
- maximize
maximize
87,540 corpus weight
- morally
morally
87,539 corpus weight
What this shows “lyric” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | lyric |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈlɪɹɪk/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #12,460 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “lyric”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around lyric (IPA /ˈlɪɹɪk/), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #12,460 among 2,297 “L” headwords. Wiktionary lists 7 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for lyric, with forms such as "llyric", "lryic", and "lyirc". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "lyrics", "lyrical", "LIC", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French lyrique, or its source, Latin lyricus, from Ancient Greek λυρικός (lurikós), from λύρα (lúra, “lyre”). Its English equivalent would be lyre + -ic. The original Greek sense of "lyric poetry"—"poetry accompanied by the lyre" i.e. "words set to mus… The correct English form is lyric, spelled L-Y-R-I-C.
Definition
- 1Of, or relating to a type of poetry (such as a sonnet or ode) that expresses subjective thoughts and feelings, often in a songlike style.
- 2Of or relating to a writer of such poetry.
- 3Lyrical.
- 4Having a light singing voice of modest range.
- 5Of or relating to musical drama and opera.
- 6Melodious.
- 7Of or relating to the lyre (or sometimes the harp).
Etymology
From French lyrique, or its source, Latin lyricus, from Ancient Greek λυρικός (lurikós), from λύρα (lúra, “lyre”). Its English equivalent would be lyre + -ic. The original Greek sense of "lyric poetry"—"poetry accompanied by the lyre" i.e. "words set to music"—eventually led to its use as "lyrics", first attested in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Stainer and Barrett used the word as a singular substantive: "Lyric, poetry or blank verse intended to be set to music and sung". By the 1930s, the present use of the plurale tantum "lyrics" had begun; it has been standard since the 1950s for many writers. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song by authorities such as Alec Wilder, Robert Gottlieb, and Stephen Sondheim. However, the singular form is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- llyric
- lryic
- lyirc
- lyrci
- lyricc
- lyrric
- lyyric
- ylric
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of lyric - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "lyric", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (8 here; floor ≥5).