lentesvslevéesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#29,418
“lentes” frequency rank
#17,750
“levées” frequency rank
47168
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lentes levées
Definition Féminin pluriel de lent. Féminin pluriel de levé.

Where the eye mixes lentes and levées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. lentes (CVCCVC) and levées (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
lentes
6 ch
levées

Visual trap between lentes and levées

A purely visual mix-up. lentes (\lɑ̃t\) and levées (\lə.ve\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47168, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lentes is recorded at frequency rank #29,418, classified as anadj, pronounced \lɑ̃t\. levées is at rank #17,750, tagged as anadj, pronounced \lə.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 47168, this pair ranks #189,040 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lentes vs levées

Shared letters: els. Private to "lentes": nt. Private to "levées": vé.

"lentes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "levées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lentes ← elntes · lenets · lenntes · lentess · lentse · lenttes · letnes · llentes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lentes" and "levées" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\lɑ̃t\ versus \lə.ve\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lentes" or "levées"?
"levées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,750 in our French list, against #29,418 for "lentes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lentes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "levées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #189,040 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lentes" and "levées" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lentes 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 #189,040 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