lentevslisteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#7,854
“lente” frequency rank
#604
“liste” frequency rank
8458
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lente liste
Definition Œuf de pou. Bande, bordure.

Where the eye mixes lente and liste

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
lente
5 ch
liste

Visual trap between lente and liste

A purely visual mix-up. lente (\lɑ̃t\) and liste (\list\) 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 8458, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lente is recorded at frequency rank #7,854, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɑ̃t\. liste is at rank #604, tagged as anoun, pronounced \list\.

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 8458, this pair ranks #419,959 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lente vs liste

Shared letters: elt. Private to "lente": n. Private to "liste": is.

"lente" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "liste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lenteelnte · lenet · lennte · lentte · letne · llente · lnete
  • listeilste · liset · lisste · listte · litse · lliste · lsite

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lente" for "liste" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\lɑ̃t\ versus \list\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lente" or "liste"?
"liste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #604 in our French list, against #7,854 for "lente". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lente" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "liste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #419,959 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lente" and "liste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lente vs leste". 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 #419,959 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