levagevslèvreWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#39,376
“levage” frequency rank
#13,423
“lèvre” frequency rank
52799
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature levage lèvre
Definition Action de lever ou résultat de cette action. Partie extérieure et charnue qui borde la bouche, qui couvre les dents et qui aide à la formation des sons, à l’articulation des mots. Note d’usage : Très souvent employé au pluriel pour comprendre la lèvre supérieure et la lèvre inférieure.

Where the eye mixes levage and lèvre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. levage runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against lèvre's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
levage
5 ch
lèvre

Visual trap between levage and lèvre

A purely visual mix-up. levage (\lə.vaʒ\) and lèvre (\lɛvʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52799, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

levage is recorded at frequency rank #39,376, classified as anoun, pronounced \lə.vaʒ\. lèvre is at rank #13,423, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɛvʁ\.

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 52799, this pair ranks #145,205 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of levage vs lèvre

Shared letters: elv. Private to "levage": ag. Private to "lèvre": rè.

"levage" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "lèvre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • levage ← elvage · leavge · levaeg · levagge · levgae · levvage · llevage · lveage

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "levage" and "lèvre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\lə.vaʒ\ versus \lɛvʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "levage" or "lèvre" show up more?
"lèvre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,423 in our French list, against #39,376 for "levage". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "levage" and "lèvre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "levage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lèvre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #145,205 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "levage" and "lèvre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lavages vs levage". 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 #145,205 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