lien
/liːn/noun
lien is spelled L-I-E-N: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 1.6 times per million words in written English, the 22,362nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “lean vs lien” about 50 times a month (Google, United States). As a noun, lien means “A right to take possession of a debtor’s property as security until a debt or duty is discharged” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of lien is liens or lienes.
How many letters and syllables are in lien?
| Letters | 4: L-I-E-N |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 1.6 times per million words; the 22,362nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is lien?
Lien appears 1.6 times per million words in written English, the 22,362nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce lien?
- /liːn/
- /ˈliːən/
As a noun (“spleen (a ductless vascular gland)”): /ˈlaɪ.in/, /ˈlaɪ.ən/.
Lien has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Persent101-lien.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with lien
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Also written: lain.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with lien?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as lien.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: line.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of lien
- liens plural
- lienes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does lien mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
obsoletetendon
- 2
A right to take possession of a debtor’s property as security until a debt or duty is discharged.
- 3
obsoletespleen (a ductless vascular gland)
The lien or spleen (figs. 282 to 285) is a soft, highly vascular contractile and very elastic organ of a dark purplish colour. It is placed obliquely behind the stomach, …
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Lien in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense right to take and hold debtor’s property:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | droit de rétention |
| German | Zurückbehaltungsrecht, Retentionsrecht |
| Portuguese | direito de retenção |
| Spanish | derecho de retención |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does lien come from?
Borrowed from Middle French lien, from Latin ligāmen (“bond”), from ligō (“tie, bind”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).