lettervslevierTell them apart

Which to use

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

#37,407
“letter” frequency rank
#8,416
“levier” frequency rank
45823
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature letter levier
Definition Lettre, caractère. Barre rigide que l’on fixe à un point d’appui servant à faciliter un mouvement pour déplacer, soutenir ou soulever d’autres corps.

Where the eye mixes letter and levier

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
letter
6 ch
levier

Why the eye confuses letter with levier

A purely visual mix-up. letter (\ˈlɛt.ə(ɹ)\) and levier (\lə.vje\) 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 45823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

letter is recorded at frequency rank #37,407, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈlɛt.ə(ɹ)\. levier is at rank #8,416, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lə.vje\.

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 45823, this pair ranks #199,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of letter vs levier

Shared letters: elr. Private to "letter": t. Private to "levier": iv.

"letter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "levier" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lettereltter · leter · letetr · letterr · lletter · lteter
  • levierelvier · leiver · leveir · levierr · levire · levvier · llevier · lveier

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "letter" for "levier" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈlɛt.ə(ɹ)\ versus \lə.vje\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "letter" or "levier"?
"levier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,416 in our French list, against #37,407 for "letter". 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 "letter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "levier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #199,761 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "letter" and "levier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leste vs letter". 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 #199,761 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