livrevslivréeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#449
“livre” frequency rank
#10,026
“livrée” frequency rank
10475
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature livre livrée
Definition Assemblage de feuilles manuscrites ou imprimées destinées à être lues. Uniforme, tenue caractéristique d’une maison, que portent les domestiques.

Where the eye mixes livre and livrée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. livre runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against livrée's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
livre
6 ch
livrée

Look-alike desk: livre vs livrée

A purely visual mix-up. livre (\livʁ\) and livrée (\li.vʁe\) 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 10475, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

livre is recorded at frequency rank #449, classified as anoun, pronounced \livʁ\. livrée is at rank #10,026, tagged as anoun, pronounced \li.vʁe\.

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 10475, this pair ranks #412,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of livre vs livrée

Shared letters: eilrv. Private to "livre": -. Private to "livrée": é.

"livre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "livrée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • livreilvre · lirve · liver · livrre · livvre · llivre · lvire

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "livre" and "livrée" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\livʁ\ versus \li.vʁe\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "livre" or "livrée" show up more?
"livre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #449 in our French list, against #10,026 for "livrée". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "livre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "livrée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #412,844 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "livre" and "livrée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "livrée vs Livry". 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 #412,844 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