lancervslinkerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“lancer” and “linker” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#34,953
“lancer” frequency rank
#48,865
“linker” frequency rank
83818
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lancer linker
Definition A cavalry soldier armed with a lance weapon. That which links.

Letter map: lancer vs linker

Shared letters muted; letters that set lancer and linker apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. lancer and linker follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
lancer
6 ch
linker

Spelling & dictionary notes on lancer vs linker

lancer and linker are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83818, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lancer is recorded at frequency rank #34,953, classified as anoun. linker is at rank #48,865, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɪŋkɚ/.

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 83818, this pair ranks #13,105 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lancer vs linker

Shared letters: elnr. Private to "lancer": ac. Private to "linker": ik.

"lancer" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "linker" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lancer ← alncer · lacner · lanccer · lancerr · lancre · lanecr · lanncer · llancer
  • linker ← ilnker · likner · linekr · linkerr · linkker · linkre · linnker · llinker

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lancer" for "linker" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "lancer" vs "linker" - which ranks higher?
"lancer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,953 in our English list, against #48,865 for "linker". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "lancer" and "linker". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lancer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "linker" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,105 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lancer" and "linker" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "liken vs linker". 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 #13,105 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list