lavevslureConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#5,996
“lave” frequency rank
#48,019
“lure” frequency rank
54015
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lave lure
Definition , Roche en fusion rejetée par un volcan en éruption. Leurre.

Where the eye mixes lave and lure

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lave
4 ch
lure

Why the eye confuses lave with lure

A purely visual mix-up. lave (\lav\) 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 54015, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lave is recorded at frequency rank #5,996, classified as anoun, pronounced \lav\. 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 54015, this pair ranks #136,880 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lave vs lure

Shared letters: el. Private to "lave": av. Private to "lure": ru.

"lave" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lavealve · laev · lavve · llave · lvae
  • lurellure · lrue · lurre · ulre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lave" and "lure" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\lav\ versus \lʊər\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "lave" or "lure" show up more?
"lave" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,996 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.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lave" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #136,880 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lave" and "lure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lar vs lure". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #136,880 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list