levevslevyWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: leve is a noun, levy is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“leve” is a noun and “levy” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,877
“leve” frequency rank
#19,894
“levy” frequency rank
59771
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leve levy
Definition Pension. Prélever, imposer.

Letter map: leve vs levy

Shared letters muted; letters that set leve and levy apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. leve and levy follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
leve
4 ch
levy

Role in the sentence - leve and levy

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leve is anoun and levyaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - e in “leve” becomes y in “levy”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59771, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leve is recorded at frequency rank #39,877, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈleː.ve\. levy is at rank #19,894, tagged as averb.

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 59771, this pair ranks #101,280 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of leve vs levy

Shared letters: elv. Private to "leve": -. Private to "levy": y.

"leve" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "levy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leve ← elve · leev · levve · lleve · lvee
  • levy ← elvy · levvy · levyy · leyv · llevy · lvey

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "leve" and "levy" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leve" is a noun and "levy" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "leve" or "levy"?
"levy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,894 in our French list, against #39,877 for "leve". 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 "leve" and "levy".

  • Full dictionary entry for "leve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "levy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #101,280 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leve" and "levy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lep vs leve". 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 #101,280 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