lestevsloseWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: leste is a noun, lose is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“leste” is a noun and “lose” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,051
“leste” frequency rank
#27,921
“lose” frequency rank
28972
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leste lose
Definition um dos pontos cardeais, oposto ao oeste, equivalente ao lado direito frouxo

Letter map: leste vs lose

Shared letters muted; letters that set leste and lose apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. leste runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against lose's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
leste
4 ch
lose

Grammar separator: leste vs lose

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: leste is anoun and loseanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28972, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leste is recorded at frequency rank #1,051, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɛʃ.tɨ/. lose is at rank #27,921, tagged as anadj.

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 28972, this pair ranks #39,771 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leste vs lose

Shared letters: els. Private to "leste": t. Private to "lose": o.

"leste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "lose" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leste ← elste · leset · lesste · lestte · letse · lleste · lsete
  • lose ← llose · loes · losse · lsoe · olse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "leste" and "lose" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "leste" is a noun and "lose" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "leste" or "lose"?
"leste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,051 in our Portuguese list, against #27,921 for "lose". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "leste" vs "lose" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leste" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lose" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,771 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leste" and "lose" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loch vs lose". 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 #39,771 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