LIC
"lic" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“LIC” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #42,238) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #42,238
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Acronym of ligand-gated ion channel.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lic · LIC · English
LIC · rank #42,238 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #42,238
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH Liddell
Nearest frequency peer: Liddell (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “LIC”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- leprechaun
leprechaun
57,766 corpus weight
- lethargy
lethargy
57,765 corpus weight
- LIC
LIC
57,763 corpus weight
- Liddell
Liddell
57,762 corpus weight
- lifeblood
lifeblood
57,761 corpus weight
- lilo
lilo
57,760 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “LIC” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | LIC |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #42,238 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “LIC”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for LIC is neighbouring look-alikes ("Lt", "lo", …), not just typos; it is anoun. Frequency #42,238 among 2,297 “L” headwords. 4 recorded senses keep meaning in play.
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for LIC, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Lt", "lo", "LP", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is LIC, spelled L-I-C.
Definition
- 1Acronym of ligand-gated ion channel.
- 2Acronym of ligation-independent cloning.
- 3Acronym of listed investment company.
- 4Initialism of low-income community.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how LIC appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Additionally, under certain circumstances, a contiguous tract that is not a LIC was able to be designated along with the LIC that was designated as an OZ.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "LIC", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).