lièvrevslièvresConfusable pair

Which to use

“lièvre” and “lièvres” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#18,525
“lièvre” frequency rank
#41,388
“lièvres” frequency rank
59913
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lièvre lièvres
Definition Quadrupède mammifère, à longues oreilles, de la famille des léporidés, qui a les pattes de derrière plus longues que celles de devant, ce qui le rend très rapide à la course. Pluriel de lièvre.

Same sound, different letters: lièvre vs lièvres

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 6 letters. lièvre runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against lièvres's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
lièvre
7 ch
lièvres

Same sound, different spelling - lièvre / lièvres

This is the hard kind. lièvre and lièvres are pronounced identically (\ljɛvʁ\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “lièvre” sits inside “lièvres”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59913, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lièvre is recorded at frequency rank #18,525, classified as anoun, pronounced \ljɛvʁ\. 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 59913, this pair ranks #100,482 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lièvre vs lièvres

Shared letters: eilrvè. Private to "lièvre": -. Private to "lièvres": s.

"lièvre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "lièvres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lièvre" and "lièvres" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ljɛvʁ\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "lièvre" or "lièvres"?
"lièvre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,525 in our French list, against #41,388 for "lièvres". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've separated the homophone pair "lièvre" / "lièvres". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lièvre" 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 #100,482 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lièvre" and "lièvres" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lièvres vs lires". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #100,482 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