ledsvslysTell them apart

Which to use

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

#32,882
“leds” frequency rank
#14,079
“lys” frequency rank
46961
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leds lys
Definition Pluriel de led. Genre de liliacées qui porte, sur une haute tige, des fleurs à trois pétales et trois sépales pétaloïdes.

Where the eye mixes leds and lys

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

4 ch
leds
3 ch
lys

Look-alike desk: leds vs lys

A purely visual mix-up. leds (\lɛd\) and lys (\lis\) 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 46961, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leds is recorded at frequency rank #32,882, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɛd\. lys is at rank #14,079, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lis\.

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 46961, this pair ranks #190,682 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leds vs lys

Shared letters: ls. Private to "leds": de. Private to "lys": y.

"leds" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "lys" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ledselds · ldes · ledds · ledss · lesd · lleds

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leds" for "lys" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\lɛd\ versus \lis\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "leds" vs "lys" - which ranks higher?
"lys" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,079 in our French list, against #32,882 for "leds". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "leds" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lys" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #190,682 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leds" and "lys" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leds vs lep". 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 #190,682 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