ld vs lin, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“ld” is an abbrev and “lin” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,065
“ld” frequency rank: #15,148
“lin” frequency rank: 55213
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	ld	lin
Definition	Mathematik: Schreibweise für den Zweierlogarithmus, den Logarithmus zur Basis 2, Kurzform für log₂	Lein, Leinpflanze, Flachs

Letter map: ld vs lin

Shared letters muted; letters that set ld and lin apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

2 ch

3 ch

lin

Part-of-speech tell for ld / lin

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: ld is anabbrev and linanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55213, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ld is recorded at frequency rank #40,065, classified as anabbrev. lin is at rank #15,148, tagged as anoun, pronounced [lɛ̃].

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 55213, this pair ranks #988,320 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ld vs lin

Shared letters: l. Private to "ld": d. Private to "lin": in.

"ld" · 2 letters · shape CC · "lin" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ld" for "lin" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ld" is an abbrev and "lin" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "ld" vs "lin" - which ranks higher?

"lin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,148 in our German list, against #40,065 for "ld". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "ld" and "lin".

Full dictionary entry for "ld" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "lin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #988,320 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"ld" and "lin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lai vs ld". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #988,320 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.