limevslivreWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#40,652
“lime” frequency rank
#535
“livre” frequency rank
41187
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lime livre
Definition verde-claro o que tem a faculdade de agir ou não agir

Where the eye mixes lime and livre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lime runs 4 letters (CVCV) against livre's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
lime
5 ch
livre

Why the eye confuses lime with livre

A purely visual mix-up. lime (/laɪm/, ouvir^(fonte ?)) and livre (/ˈli.vɾɨ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41187, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lime is recorded at frequency rank #40,652, classified as anadj, pronounced /laɪm/, ouvir^(fonte ?). livre is at rank #535, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈli.vɾɨ/.

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 41187, this pair ranks #24,785 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lime vs livre

Shared letters: eil. Private to "lime": m. Private to "livre": rv.

"lime" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "livre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lime ← ilme · liem · limme · llime · lmie
  • livre ← ilvre · lirve · liver · livrre · livvre · llivre · lvire

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lime" and "livre" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/laɪm/, ouvir^(fonte ?) versus /ˈli.vɾɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lime" vs "livre" - which ranks higher?
"livre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #535 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.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lime" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "livre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,785 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lime" and "livre" 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 #24,785 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