Which to use
“lure” and “lyre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,019
- “lure” frequency rank
- #30,253
- “lyre” frequency rank
- 78272
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lure | lyre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Leurre. | Cordophone portable à cordes pincées parallèles au chevalet, dont la caisse de résonance ne se prolonge pas par un manche, qui était en usage chez les anciens. |
Where the eye mixes lure and lyre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lure and lyre follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses lure with lyre
A purely visual mix-up. lure (\lʊər\) and lyre (\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 a single letter - u in “lure” becomes y in “lyre”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78272, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lure is recorded at frequency rank #48,019, classified as anoun, pronounced \lʊər\. lyre is at rank #30,253, 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 78272, this pair ranks #26,196 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lure vs lyre
Shared letters: elr. Private to "lure": u. Private to "lyre": y.
"lure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lyre" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lure" and "lyre" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "lure" or "lyre" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "lure" and "lyre" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lure" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lyre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #26,196 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lure" and "lyre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lar vs lure". 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 #26,196 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.