liresvsloreTell them apart

Which to use

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

#35,129
“lires” frequency rank
#41,873
“lore” frequency rank
77002
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lires lore
Definition Pluriel de lire. Partie entre l’œil et la base du bec chez les oiseaux.

Where the eye mixes lires and lore

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
lires
4 ch
lore

Why the eye confuses lires with lore

A purely visual mix-up. lires (\liʁ\) and lore (\lɔʁ\) 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 77002, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lires is recorded at frequency rank #35,129, classified as anoun, pronounced \liʁ\. lore is at rank #41,873, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɔʁ\.

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 77002, this pair ranks #29,557 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lires vs lore

Shared letters: elr. Private to "lires": is. Private to "lore": o.

"lires" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "lore" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • liresilres · liers · liress · lirres · lirse · llires · lries
  • lorellore · loer · lorre · lroe · olre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lires" and "lore" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\liʁ\ versus \lɔʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lires" or "lore"?
"lires" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,129 in our French list, against #41,873 for "lore". 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 "lires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lore" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,557 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lires" and "lore" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs lore". 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 #29,557 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