liensvslinoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,598
“liens” frequency rank
#25,720
“lino” frequency rank
27318
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature liens lino
Definition Pluriel de lien. Linoléum.

Where the eye mixes liens and lino

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

5 ch
liens
4 ch
lino

Look-alike desk: liens vs lino

A purely visual mix-up. liens (\ljɛ̃\) and lino (\li.no\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27318, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

liens is recorded at frequency rank #1,598, classified as anoun, pronounced \ljɛ̃\. lino is at rank #25,720, tagged as anoun, pronounced \li.no\.

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 27318, this pair ranks #329,745 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of liens vs lino

Shared letters: iln. Private to "liens": es. Private to "lino": o.

"liens" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "lino" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • liensilens · leins · lienns · lienss · liesn · lliens
  • linoilno · linno · llino · lnio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "liens" for "lino" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ljɛ̃\ versus \li.no\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "liens" or "lino"?
"liens" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,598 in our French list, against #25,720 for "lino". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "liens" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lino" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #329,745 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "liens" and "lino" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lino vs longo". 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 #329,745 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