Which to use
“lance” and “longe” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,441
- “lance” frequency rank
- #17,469
- “longe” frequency rank
- 18910
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lance | longe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Arme à long bois, terminée par un fer pointu et qui, au Moyen Âge, était fort grosse vers la poignée. | Longue corde pour le dressage des chevaux. |
Where the eye mixes lance and longe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses lance with longe
A purely visual mix-up. lance (\lɑ̃s\) and longe (\lɔ̃ʒ\) 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 18910, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lance is recorded at frequency rank #1,441, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɑ̃s\. longe is at rank #17,469, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɔ̃ʒ\.
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 18910, this pair ranks #375,977 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lance vs longe
Shared letters: eln. Private to "lance": ac. Private to "longe": go.
"lance" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "longe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lance" for "longe" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lance" vs "longe" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "lance" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "longe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #375,977 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lance" and "longe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "longe vs longo". 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 #375,977 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.