lansvslipsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#35,119
“lans” frequency rank
#46,867
“lips” frequency rank
81986
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lans lips
Definition Écart intempestif que fait un navire à droite ou à gauche de sa route ou rotation sur son mouillage. Pluriel de lip.

Where the eye mixes lans and lips

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lans and lips follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
lans
4 ch
lips

Look-alike desk: lans vs lips

A purely visual mix-up. lans (\lɑ̃\) and lips (\ˈlɪps\) 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 81986, 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\. lips is at rank #46,867, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈlɪps\.

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 81986, this pair ranks #17,675 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lans vs lips

Shared letters: ls. Private to "lans": an. Private to "lips": ip.

"lans" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "lips" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lans ← alns · lanns · lanss · lasn · llans · lnas
  • lips ← ilps · lipps · lipss · lisp · llips

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lans" and "lips" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\lɑ̃\ versus \ˈlɪps\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lans" vs "lips" - which ranks higher?
"lans" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,119 in our French list, against #46,867 for "lips". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lips" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,675 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lans" and "lips" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lep vs lips". 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 #17,675 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