lemvslisTell them apart

Which to use

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

#40,348
“lem” frequency rank
#3,147
“lis” frequency rank
43495
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lem lis
Definition Membre, partie du corps. Genre de liliacées qui porte, sur une haute tige, des fleurs à trois pétales et trois sépales pétaloïdes.

Letter map: lem vs lis

Shared letters muted; letters that set lem and lis apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
lem
3 ch
lis

Pair insight - lem / lis

lem and lis 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43495, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lem is recorded at frequency rank #40,348, classified as anoun. lis is at rank #3,147, 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 43495, this pair ranks #217,624 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lem vs lis

Shared letters: l. Private to "lem": em. Private to "lis": is.

"lem" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lis" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lem" and "lis" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "lem" vs "lis" - which ranks higher?
"lis" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,147 in our French list, against #40,348 for "lem". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "lem" vs "lis" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lem" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #217,624 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lem" and "lis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lem vs lep". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #217,624 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