Which to use
“lace” and “lança” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,860
- “lace” frequency rank
- #17,986
- “lança” frequency rank
- 59846
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lace | lança |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Première personne du singulier du présent de l’indicatif de lacer. | Troisième personne du singulier du passé simple de lancer. |
Where the eye mixes lace and lança
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lace runs 4 letters (CVCV) against lança's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between lace and lança
A purely visual mix-up. lace (\las\) and lança (\lɑ̃.sa\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59846, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lace is recorded at frequency rank #41,860, classified as averb, pronounced \las\. lança is at rank #17,986, tagged as averb, pronounced \lɑ̃.sa\.
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 59846, this pair ranks #100,882 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lace vs lança
Shared letters: al. Private to "lace": ce. Private to "lança": nç.
"lace" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lança" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- lace ← lacce · lcae · llace
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lace" and "lança" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "lace" or "lança" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "lace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lança" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #100,882 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lace" and "lança" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lace vs lago". 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 #100,882 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.