léguervslevierWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: léguer is a verb, levier is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“léguer” is a verb and “levier” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#32,473
“léguer” frequency rank
#8,416
“levier” frequency rank
40889
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature léguer levier
Definition Donner par testament ou par autre acte de dernière volonté. Barre rigide que l’on fixe à un point d’appui servant à faciliter un mouvement pour déplacer, soutenir ou soulever d’autres corps.

Where the eye mixes léguer and levier

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. léguer and levier follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
léguer
6 ch
levier

Look-alike desk: léguer vs levier

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: léguer is \le.ɡe\ while levier is \lə.vje\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40889, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

léguer is recorded at frequency rank #32,473, classified as averb, pronounced \le.ɡe\. levier is at rank #8,416, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lə.vje\.

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 40889, this pair ranks #237,155 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of léguer vs levier

Shared letters: elr. Private to "léguer": gué. Private to "levier": iv.

"léguer" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "levier" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • levier ← elvier · leiver · leveir · levierr · levire · levvier · llevier · lveier

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "léguer" for "levier" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "léguer" is a verb and "levier" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "léguer" or "levier" show up more?
"levier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,416 in our French list, against #32,473 for "léguer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "léguer" and "levier" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "léguer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "levier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #237,155 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "léguer" and "levier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "léguer vs letter". 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 #237,155 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