lacunevslaguneTell them apart

Which to use

“lacune” and “lagune” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#30,685
“lacune” frequency rank
#30,241
“lagune” frequency rank
60926
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lacune lagune
Definition Espace vide, solution de continuité dans un corps ou dans une série. Étendue plus ou moins grande d’eau de mer, sur un haut-fond, entre des îlots ou des bancs de sable.

Where the eye mixes lacune and lagune

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
lacune
6 ch
lagune

Look-alike desk: lacune vs lagune

A purely visual mix-up. lacune (\la.kyn\) and lagune (\la.ɡyn\) 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 a single letter - c in “lacune” becomes g in “lagune”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lacune is recorded at frequency rank #30,685, classified as anoun, pronounced \la.kyn\. lagune is at rank #30,241, tagged as anoun, pronounced \la.ɡyn\.

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 60926, this pair ranks #95,045 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lacune vs lagune

Shared letters: aelnu. Private to "lacune": c. Private to "lagune": g.

"lacune" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "lagune" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lacunealcune · laccune · lacnue · lacuen · lacunne · laucne · lcaune · llacune
  • lagunealgune · laggune · laguen · lagunne · laugne · lgaune · llagune

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lacune" for "lagune" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\la.kyn\ versus \la.ɡyn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "lacune" or "lagune" show up more?
"lagune" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,241 in our French list, against #30,685 for "lacune". 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 "lacune" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lagune" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #95,045 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lacune" and "lagune" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Labrune vs lacune". 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 #95,045 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list