linevsLinzWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: line is a noun, Linz is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“line” is a noun and “Linz” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#5,511
“line” frequency rank
#4,534
“Linz” frequency rank
10045
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature line Linz
Definition Schnur, Faden: lange, relativ dünne Textilie Landeshauptstadt des österreichischen Bundeslandes Oberösterreich

Where the eye mixes line and Linz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
line
4 ch
Linz

Look-alike desk: line vs Linz

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: line is [laɪn] while Linz is [lɪnt͡s]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “line” becomes z in “Linz”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10045, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

line is recorded at frequency rank #5,511, classified as anoun, pronounced [laɪn]. Linz is at rank #4,534, tagged as aname, pronounced [lɪnt͡s].

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 10045, this pair ranks #1,977,049 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of line vs Linz

Shared letters: iln. Private to "line": e. Private to "Linz": z.

"line" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Linz" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lineilne · lien · linne · lline · lnie
  • Linzilnz · linnz · linzz · lizn · llinz · lniz

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "line" and "Linz" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "line" is a noun and "Linz" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "line" or "Linz" show up more?
"Linz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,534 in our German list, against #5,511 for "line". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "line" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Linz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,977,049 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "line" and "Linz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lame vs line". 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 #1,977,049 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list