lightvslitWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#6,444
“light” frequency rank
#31,433
“lit” frequency rank
37877
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature light lit
Definition leve cama, leito

Letter map: light vs lit

Shared letters muted; letters that set light and lit apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
light
3 ch
lit

Role in the sentence - light and lit

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: light is anadjective and litanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37877, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

light is recorded at frequency rank #6,444, classified as anadj. 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 37877, this pair ranks #28,678 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of light vs lit

Shared letters: ilt. Private to "light": gh. Private to "lit": -.

"light" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC  ·  "lit" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lightilght · lgiht · ligght · lighht · lightt · ligth · lihgt · llight

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "light" for "lit" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "light" is an adjective and "lit" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "light" vs "lit" - which ranks higher?
"light" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,444 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "light" 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 #28,678 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "light" 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 #28,678 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