lamasvslansWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#40,346
“lamas” frequency rank
#35,119
“lans” frequency rank
75465
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lamas lans
Definition Pluriel de lama. Écart intempestif que fait un navire à droite ou à gauche de sa route ou rotation sur son mouillage.

Where the eye mixes lamas and lans

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lamas runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against lans's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
lamas
4 ch
lans

Why the eye confuses lamas with lans

A purely visual mix-up. lamas (\la.ma\) and lans (\lɑ̃\) 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 75465, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lamas is recorded at frequency rank #40,346, classified as anoun, pronounced \la.ma\. lans is at rank #35,119, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɑ̃\.

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 75465, this pair ranks #34,021 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lamas vs lans

Shared letters: als. Private to "lamas": m. Private to "lans": n.

"lamas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "lans" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lamas ← almas · laams · lamass · lammas · lamsa · llamas · lmaas
  • lans ← alns · lanns · lanss · lasn · llans · lnas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lamas" for "lans" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\la.ma\ versus \lɑ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lamas" or "lans"?
"lans" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,119 in our French list, against #40,346 for "lamas". 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 "lamas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #34,021 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lamas" and "lans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lamas vs limes". 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 #34,021 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