lean

\lin\

/\lin\/ adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“lean” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #26,078) as an adjective. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#26,078
frequency rank, French
2,567
“L” headwords
2
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Économe, frugal, surtout en rapport avec les techniques de lean management.

Corpus desk

Index FR-lean · lean · French

lean · rank #26,078 · 2 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #26,078
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 2 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,567
  • PHOTO-FINISH laitier

Nearest frequency peer: laitier (-1 rank slots)

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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « lean »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « lean » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

lean vs les
50% similar
lean vs Lee
25% similar
lean vs lin
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for lean
PropertyValue
Headwordlean
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\lin\
Letters4
Frequency rank#26,078
Misspellings tracked2
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « lean »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).leanse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « laitier » (#26,077), « Lesage » (#26,079), « KGB » (#26,076). Parmi 2,567 lemmes en « L », « lean » est au #26,078. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for lean is neighbouring look-alikes ("les", "Lee", …), not just typos; it is anadjective pronounced \lin\. Frequency #26,078 among 2,567 “L” headwords. Gloss: "Économe, frugal, surtout en rapport avec les techniques de lean management.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 2 likely wrong-spelling variants for lean, including "leann" and "llean". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "les", "Lee", "lin", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is lean, spelled L-E-A-N.

Definition

  1. 1
    Économe, frugal, surtout en rapport avec les techniques de lean management.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how lean appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. L'école de gestion lean trouve ses sources au Japon dans le système de production de Toyota.

This word in other languages

lean(English)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • leann
  • llean

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of lean - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

leann1llean1
Edit distance from "lean"

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "lean"?
"lean" is spelled L-E-A-N. The IPA pronunciation is \lin\.
What does "lean" mean?
As an adjective, "lean" means: Économe, frugal, surtout en rapport avec les techniques de lean management.
What words are commonly confused with "lean"?
"lean" is commonly confused with "les", "Lee", "lin". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "lean"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "lean" is \lin\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "lean" come from?
"lean" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "lean", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

keys#26,075mira#26,091monk#26,093inox#26,059

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list