Which to use
“late” and “lune” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,229
- “late” frequency rank
- #2,045
- “lune” frequency rank
- 30274
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | late | lune |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Latte. | Satellite naturel de la Terre, qui tourne autour de celle-ci en un cycle de vingt-sept jours sept heures quarante-trois minutes. Le satellite réfléchit sur la Terre la lumière qu’il reçoit du Soleil. Lune s’écrit avec une majuscule en astronomie lorsqu'on s'en sert comme nom propre de cet astre, pour le distinguer des autres satellites naturels. |
Where the eye mixes late and lune
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: late vs lune
A purely visual mix-up. late (\lat\) and lune (\lyn\) 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 30274, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
late is recorded at frequency rank #28,229, classified as anoun, pronounced \lat\. lune is at rank #2,045, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lyn\.
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 30274, this pair ranks #311,428 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of late vs lune
Shared letters: el. Private to "late": at. Private to "lune": nu.
"late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lune" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "late" for "lune" ever safe?
Which is more common, "late" or "lune"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "late" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lune" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #311,428 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "late" and "lune" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lago vs late". 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 #311,428 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.