Which to use
“less” is an adjective and “lex” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,688
- “less” frequency rank
- #19,582
- “lex” frequency rank
- 50270
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | less | lex |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Moins, en quantité. | Loi écrite. |
Letter map: less vs lex
Shared letters muted; letters that set less and lex apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for less / lex
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: less is anadjective and lexanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50270, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
less is recorded at frequency rank #30,688, classified as anadj, pronounced \ˈlɛs\. 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 50270, this pair ranks #163,999 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of less vs lex
Shared letters: el. Private to "less": s. Private to "lex": x.
"less" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lex" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- less ← elss · lless · lses
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "less" for "lex" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "less" or "lex" show up more?
What to do next
Pair "less" vs "lex" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "less" 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 #163,999 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "less" and "lex" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lep vs less". 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 #163,999 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.