lincevslunchWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“lince” and “lunch” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#26,906
“lince” frequency rank
#47,920
“lunch” frequency rank
74826
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lince lunch
Definition Mamífero carnívoro de la familia félidos, muy parecido al gato montés. Una comida ligera usualmente comida alrededor del mediodía, especialmente si no es la principal comida del día; lonche.

Where the eye mixes lince and lunch

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lince (CVCCV) and lunch (CVCCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
lince
5 ch
lunch

Look-alike desk: lince vs lunch

A purely visual mix-up. lince ([ˈlĩnse]) and lunch (/lʌnt͡ʃ/) 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 74826, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lince is recorded at frequency rank #26,906, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlĩnse]. lunch is at rank #47,920, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lʌnt͡ʃ/.

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 74826, this pair ranks #20,646 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lince vs lunch

Shared letters: cln. Private to "lince": ei. Private to "lunch": hu.

"lince" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "lunch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lince ← ilnce · licne · lincce · linec · linnce · linse · llince · lnice
  • lunch ← llunch · lnuch · lucnh · luncch · lunchh · lunhc · lunnch · ulnch

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lince" and "lunch" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈlĩnse] versus /lʌnt͡ʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "lince" or "lunch" show up more?
"lince" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,906 in our Spanish list, against #47,920 for "lunch". 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 "lince" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lunch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,646 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lince" and "lunch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lunch vs luzca". 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 #20,646 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list