levyvslezTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#19,894
“levy” frequency rank
#21,063
“lez” frequency rank
40957
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature levy lez
Definition Prélever, imposer. À côté de, proche de, tout contre.

Letter map: levy vs lez

Shared letters muted; letters that set levy and lez apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
levy
3 ch
lez

Role in the sentence - levy and lez

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: levy is averb and lezapreposition. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40957, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

levy is recorded at frequency rank #19,894, classified as averb. lez is at rank #21,063, tagged as aprep, pronounced \lɛ\.

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 40957, this pair ranks #236,668 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of levy vs lez

Shared letters: el. Private to "levy": vy. Private to "lez": z.

"levy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lez" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • levyelvy · levvy · levyy · leyv · llevy · lvey

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "levy" and "lez" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "levy" is a verb and "lez" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "levy" or "lez" show up more?
"levy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,894 in our French list, against #21,063 for "lez". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "levy" and "lez". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "levy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lez" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #236,668 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "levy" and "lez" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lep vs lez". 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 #236,668 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