Which to use
“lame” and “line” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,523
- “lame” frequency rank
- #8,263
- “line” frequency rank
- 14786
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lame | line |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Solide aplati, d’épaisseur mince, feuille, tôle, plaque. | Corde, fil. |
Where the eye mixes lame and line
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lame and line follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses lame with line
A purely visual mix-up. lame (\lam\) and line (\laɪn\) 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 14786, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lame is recorded at frequency rank #6,523, classified as anoun, pronounced \lam\. line is at rank #8,263, tagged as anoun, pronounced \laɪn\.
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 14786, this pair ranks #395,236 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lame vs line
Shared letters: el. Private to "lame": am. Private to "line": in.
"lame" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "line" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lame" and "line" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "lame" or "line" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "lame" and "line" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "line" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #395,236 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lame" and "line" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "liker vs line". 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 #395,236 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.