lavéevslevéesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,469
“lavée” frequency rank
#17,750
“levées” frequency rank
54219
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lavée levées
Definition Féminin singulier de lavé. Féminin pluriel de levé.

Where the eye mixes lavée and levées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. lavée runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against levées's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
lavée
6 ch
levées

Why the eye confuses lavée with levées

A purely visual mix-up. lavée (\la.ve\) and levées (\lə.ve\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54219, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lavée is recorded at frequency rank #36,469, classified as anadj, pronounced \la.ve\. levées is at rank #17,750, tagged as anadj, pronounced \lə.ve\.

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 54219, this pair ranks #135,438 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lavée vs levées

Shared letters: elvé. Private to "lavée": a. Private to "levées": s.

"lavée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "levées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lavée" and "levées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\la.ve\ versus \lə.ve\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lavée" vs "levées" - which ranks higher?
"levées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,750 in our French list, against #36,469 for "lavée". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lavée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "levées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #135,438 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lavée" and "levées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lacey vs lavée". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #135,438 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