lervslexWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,868
“ler” frequency rank
#19,582
“lex” frequency rank
61450
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ler lex
Definition Pin. Loi écrite.

Letter map: ler vs lex

Shared letters muted; letters that set ler and lex apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
ler
3 ch
lex

Spelling & dictionary notes on ler vs lex

ler and lex 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 a single letter - r in “ler” becomes x in “lex”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61450, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ler is recorded at frequency rank #41,868, classified as anoun. lex is at rank #19,582, tagged as anoun.

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 61450, this pair ranks #92,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ler vs lex

Shared letters: el. Private to "ler": r. Private to "lex": x.

"ler" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lex" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ler" for "lex" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - r in “ler” becomes x in “lex”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "ler" or "lex"?
"lex" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,582 in our French list, against #41,868 for "ler". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ler" and "lex".

  • Full dictionary entry for "ler" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lex" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #92,225 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ler" and "lex" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lep vs ler". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #92,225 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