legsvsleiWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,929
“legs” frequency rank
#30,248
“lei” frequency rank
47177
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature legs lei
Definition Don fait par testament ou par autre acte de dernière volonté. Pluriel de leu.

Where the eye mixes legs and lei

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

4 ch
legs
3 ch
lei

Why the eye confuses legs with lei

A purely visual mix-up. legs (\lɛ\) and lei (\lɛj\) 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 47177, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

legs is recorded at frequency rank #16,929, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɛ\. lei is at rank #30,248, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɛj\.

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 47177, this pair ranks #188,955 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of legs vs lei

Shared letters: el. Private to "legs": gs. Private to "lei": i.

"legs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "lei" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • legselgs · leggs · legss · lesg · lges · llegs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "legs" for "lei" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\lɛ\ versus \lɛj\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "legs" vs "lei" - which ranks higher?
"legs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,929 in our French list, against #30,248 for "lei". 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 "legs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lei" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #188,955 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "legs" and "lei" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lei 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 #188,955 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