LeevslemmeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Lee is a name, lemme is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Lee” is a name and “lemme” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,425
“Lee” frequency rank
#48,640
“lemme” frequency rank
53065
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lee lemme
Definition Nom de famille han ou coréen. Proposition dont la démonstration est nécessaire pour une autre proposition qui doit la suivre.

Where the eye mixes Lee and lemme

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

3 ch
Lee
5 ch
lemme

Look-alike desk: Lee vs lemme

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Lee is \li\ while lemme is \lɛm\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53065, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lee is recorded at frequency rank #4,425, classified as aname, pronounced \li\. lemme is at rank #48,640, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɛm\.

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 53065, this pair ranks #143,336 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Lee vs lemme

Shared letters: el. Private to "Lee": -. Private to "lemme": m.

"Lee" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "lemme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lemmeelmme · leme · lemem · llemme · lmeme

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Lee" for "lemme" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lee" is a name and "lemme" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "Lee" or "lemme" show up more?
"Lee" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,425 in our French list, against #48,640 for "lemme". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lee" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lemme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #143,336 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lee" and "lemme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lemme vs leste". 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 #143,336 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