lansvslentsWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lans is a noun, lents is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lans” is a noun and “lents” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,119
“lans” frequency rank
#17,988
“lents” frequency rank
53107
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lans lents
Definition Écart intempestif que fait un navire à droite ou à gauche de sa route ou rotation sur son mouillage. Masculin pluriel de lent.

Same sound, different letters: lans vs lents

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters. lans runs 4 letters (CVCC) against lents's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
lans
5 ch
lents

Ear matches; page differs - lans and lents

Say them out loud and nothing separates them: lans and lents carry the same recorded pronunciation, \lɑ̃\. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anoun, the other anadjective, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53107, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lans is recorded at frequency rank #35,119, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɑ̃\. lents is at rank #17,988, tagged as anadj, 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 53107, this pair ranks #143,004 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lans vs lents

Shared letters: lns. Private to "lans": a. Private to "lents": et.

"lans" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "lents" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lans ← alns · lanns · lanss · lasn · llans · lnas
  • lents ← elnts · lennts · lenst · lentss · lentts · letns · llents · lnets

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lans" and "lents" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lans" is a noun and "lents" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lans" vs "lents" - which ranks higher?
"lents" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,988 in our French list, against #35,119 for "lans". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lents" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #143,004 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lans" and "lents" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lago vs lans". 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 #143,004 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