levevslimeTell them apart

Which to use

“leve” and “lime” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,245
“leve” frequency rank
#40,652
“lime” frequency rank
41897
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature leve lime
Definition que tem pouco peso verde-claro

Where the eye mixes leve and lime

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
leve
4 ch
lime

Why the eye confuses leve with lime

A purely visual mix-up. leve (/ˈlɛ.vɨ/) and lime (/laɪm/, ouvir^(fonte ?)) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41897, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

leve is recorded at frequency rank #1,245, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈlɛ.vɨ/. lime is at rank #40,652, tagged as anadj, pronounced /laɪm/, ouvir^(fonte ?).

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 41897, this pair ranks #23,966 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of leve vs lime

Shared letters: el. Private to "leve": v. Private to "lime": im.

"leve" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lime" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leveelve · leev · levve · lleve · lvee
  • limeilme · liem · limme · llime · lmie

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "leve" for "lime" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈlɛ.vɨ/ versus /laɪm/, ouvir^(fonte ?)) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "leve" or "lime"?
"leve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,245 in our Portuguese list, against #40,652 for "lime". 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 "leve" and "lime" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "leve" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lime" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,966 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "leve" and "lime" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lied vs lime". 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 #23,966 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