Which to use
“lamb” and “lans” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,367
- “lamb” frequency rank
- #35,119
- “lans” frequency rank
- 74486
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lamb | lans |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Agneau. | Écart intempestif que fait un navire à droite ou à gauche de sa route ou rotation sur son mouillage. |
Where the eye mixes lamb and lans
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lamb and lans follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses lamb with lans
A purely visual mix-up. lamb (\ˈlæm\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74486, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lamb is recorded at frequency rank #39,367, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈlæm\. 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 74486, this pair ranks #37,017 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lamb vs lans
Shared letters: al. Private to "lamb": bm. Private to "lans": ns.
"lamb" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lans" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lamb" and "lans" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "lamb" or "lans" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "lamb" 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 #37,017 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lamb" and "lans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lago vs lamb". 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 #37,017 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.