Which to use
“lice” and “live” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,965
- “lice” frequency rank
- #2,524
- “live” frequency rank
- 17489
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lice | live |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Palissade, en particulier celle qui délimite le champ clos préparé pour les jeux et exercices équestres, les joutes, tournois, etc. | Langue éteinte appartenant à la branche fennique de la famille des langues finno-ougriennes (principalement en Livonie). |
Where the eye mixes lice and live
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lice vs live
A purely visual mix-up. lice (\lis\) and live (\liv\) 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 a single letter - c in “lice” becomes v in “live”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17489, 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\. live is at rank #2,524, tagged as anoun, pronounced \liv\.
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 17489, this pair ranks #382,922 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lice vs live
Shared letters: eil. Private to "lice": c. Private to "live": v.
"lice" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "live" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lice" and "live" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "lice" vs "live" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "lice" and "live" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lice" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "live" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #382,922 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lice" and "live" 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 #382,922 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.