Which to use
“Lewis” is a name and “lis” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,987
- “Lewis” frequency rank
- #3,147
- “lis” frequency rank
- 11134
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Lewis | lis |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom de famille anglais. | Genre de liliacées qui porte, sur une haute tige, des fleurs à trois pétales et trois sépales pétaloïdes. |
Where the eye mixes Lewis and lis
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: Lewis vs lis
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Lewis is \le.wis\ while lis is \lis\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11134, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Lewis is recorded at frequency rank #7,987, classified as aname, pronounced \le.wis\. lis is at rank #3,147, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lis\.
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 11134, this pair ranks #410,341 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Lewis vs lis
Shared letters: ils. Private to "Lewis": ew. Private to "lis": -.
"Lewis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "lis" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- Lewis ← elwis · leiws · lewiss · lewsi · lewwis · llewis · lweis
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Lewis" for "lis" ever safe?
Which is more common, "Lewis" or "lis"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "Lewis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #410,341 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Lewis" and "lis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "levais vs Lewis". 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 #410,341 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.