Which to use
“lieues” and “lièvres” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #20,775
- “lieues” frequency rank
- #41,388
- “lièvres” frequency rank
- 62163
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lieues | lièvres |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de lieue. | Pluriel de lièvre. |
Where the eye mixes lieues and lièvres
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. lieues runs 6 letters (CVVVVC) against lièvres's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between lieues and lièvres
A purely visual mix-up. lieues (\ljø\) and lièvres (\ljɛvʁ\) 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 62163, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lieues is recorded at frequency rank #20,775, classified as anoun, pronounced \ljø\. lièvres is at rank #41,388, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ljɛvʁ\.
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 62163, this pair ranks #88,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lieues vs lièvres
Shared letters: eils. Private to "lieues": u. Private to "lièvres": rvè.
"lieues" · 6 letters · shape CVVVVC · "lièvres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- lieues ← ileues · leiues · lieeus · lieuess · lieuse · liuees · llieues
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lieues" for "lièvres" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lieues" vs "lièvres" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "lieues" and "lièvres" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lieues" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lièvres" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #88,532 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lieues" and "lièvres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lièvres vs lires". 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 #88,532 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.