latevslitTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#12,276
“late” frequency rank
#31,433
“lit” frequency rank
43709
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature late lit
Definition terceira pessoa do presente do indicativo do verbo latir cama, leito

Letter map: late vs lit

Shared letters muted; letters that set late and lit apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
late
3 ch
lit

Role in the sentence - late and lit

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: late is averb and litanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43709, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

late is recorded at frequency rank #12,276, classified as averb. lit is at rank #31,433, tagged as anoun, pronounced /li/.

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 43709, this pair ranks #21,912 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of late vs lit

Shared letters: lt. Private to "late": ae. Private to "lit": i.

"late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • latealte · laet · latte · llate · ltae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "late" and "lit" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "late" is a verb and "lit" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "late" vs "lit" - which ranks higher?
"late" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,276 in our Portuguese list, against #31,433 for "lit". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "late" and "lit".

  • Full dictionary entry for "late" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lit" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,912 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "late" and "lit" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lied vs lit". 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 #21,912 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list