lemvsleveWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,348
“lem” frequency rank
#39,877
“leve” frequency rank
80225
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lem leve
Definition Membre, partie du corps. Pension.

Letter map: lem vs leve

Shared letters muted; letters that set lem and leve apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. lem runs 3 letters (CVC) against leve's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
lem
4 ch
leve

Corpus notes: lem and leve

lem and leve are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80225, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lem is recorded at frequency rank #40,348, classified as anoun. leve is at rank #39,877, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈleː.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 80225, this pair ranks #21,501 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lem vs leve

Shared letters: el. Private to "lem": m. Private to "leve": v.

"lem" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "leve" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leve ← elve · leev · levve · lleve · lvee

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lem" for "leve" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "lem" vs "leve" - which ranks higher?
"leve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,877 in our French list, against #40,348 for "lem". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lem" and "leve".

  • Full dictionary entry for "lem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "leve" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,501 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lem" and "leve" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lem 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 #21,501 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