lèvresvslivreWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,934
“lèvres” frequency rank
#449
“livre” frequency rank
3383
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lèvres livre
Definition Pluriel de lèvre. Assemblage de feuilles manuscrites ou imprimées destinées à être lues.

Where the eye mixes lèvres and livre

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

6 ch
lèvres
5 ch
livre

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. lèvres (\lɛvʁ\) and livre (\livʁ\) 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 3383, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lèvres is recorded at frequency rank #2,934, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɛvʁ\. livre is at rank #449, tagged as anoun, pronounced \livʁ\.

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 3383, this pair ranks #434,163 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lèvres vs livre

Shared letters: elrv. Private to "lèvres": . Private to "livre": i.

"lèvres" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "livre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • livreilvre · lirve · liver · livrre · livvre · llivre · lvire

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lèvres" and "livre" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\lɛvʁ\ versus \livʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lèvres" or "livre"?
"livre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #449 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 "lèvres" and "livre". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lèvres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "livre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #434,163 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lèvres" and "livre" 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