lièvresvsliresWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,388
“lièvres” frequency rank
#35,129
“lires” frequency rank
76517
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lièvres lires
Definition Pluriel de lièvre. Pluriel de lire.

Where the eye mixes lièvres and lires

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. lièvres runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against lires's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
lièvres
5 ch
lires

Look-alike desk: lièvres vs lires

A purely visual mix-up. lièvres (\ljɛvʁ\) and lires (\liʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76517, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lièvres is recorded at frequency rank #41,388, classified as anoun, pronounced \ljɛvʁ\. lires is at rank #35,129, tagged as anoun, pronounced \liʁ\.

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 76517, this pair ranks #30,913 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lièvres vs lires

Shared letters: eilrs. Private to "lièvres": vè. Private to "lires": -.

"lièvres" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "lires" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lires ← ilres · liers · liress · lirres · lirse · llires · lries

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lièvres" and "lires" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ljɛvʁ\ versus \liʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lièvres" vs "lires" - which ranks higher?
"lires" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,129 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "lièvres" and "lires" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lièvres" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lires" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,913 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lièvres" and "lires" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "liker 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 #30,913 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