lacunesvslagunesConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#11,990
“lacunes” frequency rank
#43,523
“lagunes” frequency rank
55513
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lacunes lagunes
Definition Pluriel de lacune. Pluriel de lagune.

Where the eye mixes lacunes and lagunes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. lacunes and lagunes follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
lacunes
7 ch
lagunes

Visual trap between lacunes and lagunes

A purely visual mix-up. lacunes (\la.kyn\) and lagunes (\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 “lacunes” becomes g in “lagunes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55513, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lacunes is recorded at frequency rank #11,990, classified as anoun, pronounced \la.kyn\. lagunes is at rank #43,523, 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 55513, this pair ranks #127,013 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lacunes vs lagunes

Shared letters: aelnsu. Private to "lacunes": c. Private to "lagunes": g.

"lacunes" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "lagunes" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lacunesalcunes · laccunes · lacnues · lacuens · lacuness · lacunnes · lacunse · laucnes
  • lagunesalgunes · laggunes · laguens · laguness · lagunnes · lagunse · laugnes · lgaunes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lacunes" and "lagunes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
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.
Frequency check: "lacunes" vs "lagunes" - which ranks higher?
"lacunes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,990 in our French list, against #43,523 for "lagunes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lacunes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lagunes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #127,013 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lacunes" and "lagunes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lagunes vs laines". 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 #127,013 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