lanceurvslinceulConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#11,607
“lanceur” frequency rank
#40,353
“linceul” frequency rank
51960
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lanceur linceul
Definition Celui qui lance. Drap, rideau, ou couverture de lin.

Where the eye mixes lanceur and linceul

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. lanceur and linceul follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
lanceur
7 ch
linceul

Look-alike desk: lanceur vs linceul

A purely visual mix-up. lanceur (\lɑ̃.sœʁ\) and linceul (\lɛ̃.sœl\) 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 51960, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lanceur is recorded at frequency rank #11,607, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɑ̃.sœʁ\. linceul is at rank #40,353, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɛ̃.sœl\.

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 51960, this pair ranks #151,159 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lanceur vs linceul

Shared letters: celnu. Private to "lanceur": ar. Private to "linceul": i.

"lanceur" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC  ·  "linceul" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lanceur ← alnceur · lacneur · lancceur · lanceru · lanceurr · lancuer · lanecur · lannceur
  • linceul ← ilnceul · licneul · lincceul · lincelu · linceull · lincuel · linecul · linnceul

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lanceur" for "linceul" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\lɑ̃.sœʁ\ versus \lɛ̃.sœl\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lanceur" vs "linceul" - which ranks higher?
"lanceur" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,607 in our French list, against #40,353 for "linceul". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "lanceur" and "linceul" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lanceur" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "linceul" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #151,159 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lanceur" and "linceul" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lacour vs lanceur". 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 #151,159 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