Which to use
“ligne” and “lignée” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #328
- “ligne” frequency rank
- #8,875
- “lignée” frequency rank
- 9203
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ligne | lignée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Trait simple, considéré comme n’ayant ni largeur ni profondeur. — Note d’usage : Il s’emploie surtout dans les sciences mathématiques. | Ensemble des humains qui font partie d’une même famille généalogique. |
Where the eye mixes ligne and lignée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. ligne runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against lignée's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between ligne and lignée
A purely visual mix-up. ligne (\liɲ\) and lignée (\li.ɲe\) 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 9203, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ligne is recorded at frequency rank #328, classified as anoun, pronounced \liɲ\. lignée is at rank #8,875, tagged as anoun, pronounced \li.ɲe\.
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 9203, this pair ranks #417,454 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of ligne vs lignée
Shared letters: egiln. Private to "ligne": -. Private to "lignée": é.
"ligne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "lignée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- ligne ← ilgne · lgine · ligen · liggne · lignne · lligne
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ligne" and "lignée" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "ligne" or "lignée"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "ligne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lignée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #417,454 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ligne" and "lignée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lianes vs lignée". 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 #417,454 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.