Which to use
“laine” and “lane” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,711
- “laine” frequency rank
- #14,498
- “lane” frequency rank
- 21209
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | laine | lane |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Poil long, assez fin et doux, qui croît sur la peau des moutons et de quelques autres mammifères herbivores comme les lapins angora, les chèvres mohair ou cachemire et les lamas. | Étendue d'eau où l'on pêche des aloses et des saumons. |
Where the eye mixes laine and lane
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: laine vs lane
A purely visual mix-up. laine (\lɛn\) and lane (\lan\) 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 21209, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
laine is recorded at frequency rank #6,711, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɛn\. lane is at rank #14,498, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lan\.
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 21209, this pair ranks #364,333 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of laine vs lane
Shared letters: aeln. Private to "laine": i. Private to "lane": -.
"laine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "lane" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "laine" and "lane" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "laine" or "lane"?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "laine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lane" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #364,333 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "laine" and "lane" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lago vs lane". 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 #364,333 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.