Which to use
“lever” is a verb and “levis” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,370
- “lever” frequency rank
- #30,689
- “levis” frequency rank
- 33059
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lever | levis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Faire qu’une chose soit plus haut qu’elle n’était. | Qu’on lève. |
Where the eye mixes lever and levis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses lever with levis
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lever is \lə.ve\ while levis is \lə.vi\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33059, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lever is recorded at frequency rank #2,370, classified as averb, pronounced \lə.ve\. levis is at rank #30,689, tagged as anadj, pronounced \lə.vi\.
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 33059, this pair ranks #293,109 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lever vs levis
Shared letters: elv. Private to "lever": r. Private to "levis": is.
"lever" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "levis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lever" for "levis" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lever" vs "levis" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "lever" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "levis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #293,109 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lever" and "levis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "levais vs levis". 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 #293,109 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.