Which to use
“lice” and “lie” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,965
- “lice” frequency rank
- #7,855
- “lie” frequency rank
- 22820
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lice | lie |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Palissade, en particulier celle qui délimite le champ clos préparé pour les jeux et exercices équestres, les joutes, tournois, etc. | Dépôt formé par précipitation dans une boisson, spécialement un liquide fermenté. |
Where the eye mixes lice and lie
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses lice with lie
A purely visual mix-up. lice (\lis\) and lie (\li\) 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 22820, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lice is recorded at frequency rank #14,965, classified as anoun, pronounced \lis\. lie is at rank #7,855, tagged as anoun, pronounced \li\.
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 22820, this pair ranks #355,991 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lice vs lie
Shared letters: eil. Private to "lice": c. Private to "lie": -.
"lice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lie" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- lice ← ilce · lcie · licce · liec · llice
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lice" for "lie" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lice" vs "lie" - which ranks higher?
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 "lice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #355,991 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lice" and "lie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lice vs liker". 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 #355,991 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.