levervslèvresWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#2,370
“lever” frequency rank
#2,934
“lèvres” frequency rank
5304
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lever lèvres
Definition Faire qu’une chose soit plus haut qu’elle n’était. Pluriel de lèvre.

Where the eye mixes lever and lèvres

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
lever
6 ch
lèvres

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lever is \lə.ve\ while lèvres is \lɛvʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5304, 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\. lèvres is at rank #2,934, 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 5304, this pair ranks #429,395 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lever vs lèvres

Shared letters: elrv. Private to "lever": -. Private to "lèvres": .

"lever" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "lèvres" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leverelver · leevr · leverr · levre · levver · llever · lveer

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lever" and "lèvres" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lever" is a verb and "lèvres" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lever" or "lèvres"?
"lever" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,370 in our French list, against #2,934 for "lèvres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "lever" and "lèvres". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lever" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lèvres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #429,395 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lever" and "lèvres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Legros vs lèvres". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list