listvslisteWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: list is a verb, liste is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“list” is a verb and “liste” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,077
“list” frequency rank
#604
“liste” frequency rank
14681
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature list liste
Definition Deuxième personne du singulier de l’impératif présent de listen. Bande, bordure.

Where the eye mixes list and liste

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

4 ch
list
5 ch
liste

Visual trap between list and liste

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: list is \lɪst\ while liste is \list\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “list” sits inside “liste”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14681, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

list is recorded at frequency rank #14,077, classified as averb, pronounced \lɪst\. liste is at rank #604, tagged as anoun, pronounced \list\.

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 14681, this pair ranks #395,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of list vs liste

Shared letters: ilst. Private to "list": -. Private to "liste": e.

"list" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "liste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • list ← ilst · lisst · listt · llist · lsit
  • liste ← ilste · liset · lisste · listte · litse · lliste · lsite

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "list" and "liste" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "list" is a verb and "liste" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "list" vs "liste" - which ranks higher?
"liste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #604 in our French list, against #14,077 for "list". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "list" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "liste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #395,643 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "list" and "liste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leste vs list". 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 #395,643 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