Which to use
“license” and “liens” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,127
- “license” frequency rank
- #1,598
- “liens” frequency rank
- 36725
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | license | liens |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Licence. | Pluriel de lien. |
Where the eye mixes license and liens
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. license runs 7 letters (CVCVCCV) against liens's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: license vs liens
A purely visual mix-up. license (\ˈlaɪ.səns\) and liens (\ljɛ̃\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36725, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
license is recorded at frequency rank #35,127, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈlaɪ.səns\. liens is at rank #1,598, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ljɛ̃\.
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 36725, this pair ranks #267,557 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of license vs liens
Shared letters: eilns. Private to "license": c. Private to "liens": -.
"license" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV · "liens" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "license" and "liens" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "license" vs "liens" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "license" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "liens" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #267,557 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "license" and "liens" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "license vs lichens". 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 #267,557 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.