lieuvslinkWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,062
“lieu” frequency rank
#1,108
“link” frequency rank
17170
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lieu link
Definition A place or stead. A connection between places, people, events, things, or ideas.

Where the eye mixes lieu and link

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lieu
4 ch
link

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. lieu (/ljuː/) and link (/lɪŋk/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17170, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lieu is recorded at frequency rank #16,062, classified as anoun, pronounced /ljuː/. link is at rank #1,108, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɪŋk/.

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 17170, this pair ranks #453,165 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lieu vs link

Shared letters: il. Private to "lieu": eu. Private to "link": kn.

"lieu" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "link" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lieuileu · leiu · liue · llieu
  • linkilnk · likn · linkk · linnk · llink · lnik

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lieu" and "link" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ljuː/ versus /lɪŋk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lieu" or "link"?
"link" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,108 in our English list, against #16,062 for "lieu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list