likesvslipsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#25,719
“likes” frequency rank
#46,867
“lips” frequency rank
72586
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature likes lips
Definition Pluriel de like. Pluriel de lip.

Where the eye mixes likes and lips

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. likes runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against lips's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
likes
4 ch
lips

Visual trap between likes and lips

A purely visual mix-up. likes (\lajk\) and lips (\ˈlɪps\) 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 72586, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

likes is recorded at frequency rank #25,719, classified as anoun, pronounced \lajk\. lips is at rank #46,867, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈlɪps\.

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 72586, this pair ranks #43,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of likes vs lips

Shared letters: ils. Private to "likes": ek. Private to "lips": p.

"likes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "lips" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • likes ← ilkes · lieks · likess · likkes · likse · lkies · llikes
  • lips ← ilps · lipps · lipss · lisp · llips

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "likes" and "lips" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\lajk\ versus \ˈlɪps\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "likes" or "lips"?
"likes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,719 in our French list, against #46,867 for "lips". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "likes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lips" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,492 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "likes" and "lips" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lep vs lips". 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 #43,492 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