latevslureWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“late” and “lure” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#28,229
“late” frequency rank
#48,019
“lure” frequency rank
76248
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature late lure
Definition Latte. Leurre.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set late and lure apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
late
4 ch
lure

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. late (\lat\) and lure (\lʊər\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76248, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

late is recorded at frequency rank #28,229, classified as anoun, pronounced \lat\. lure is at rank #48,019, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lʊər\.

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 76248, this pair ranks #31,670 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of late vs lure

Shared letters: el. Private to "late": at. Private to "lure": ru.

"late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • latealte · laet · llate · ltae
  • lurellure · lrue · lurre · ulre

Frequency comparison

late#28,229
lure#48,019

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "late" and "lure" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\lat\ versus \lʊər\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "late" or "lure"?
"late" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,229 in our French list, against #48,019 for "lure". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering late vs lure

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “late” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list