Which to use
“ligne” and “limbe” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #328
- “ligne” frequency rank
- #39,880
- “limbe” frequency rank
- 40208
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ligne | limbe |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Trait simple, considéré comme n’ayant ni largeur ni profondeur. — Note d’usage : Il s’emploie surtout dans les sciences mathématiques. | Bord, généralement gradué, d’un instrument de mesure circulaire. |
Where the eye mixes ligne and limbe
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ligne and limbe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between ligne and limbe
A purely visual mix-up. ligne (\liɲ\) and limbe (\lɛ̃b\) 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 40208, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ligne is recorded at frequency rank #328, classified as anoun, pronounced \liɲ\. limbe is at rank #39,880, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɛ̃b\.
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 40208, this pair ranks #242,213 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of ligne vs limbe
Shared letters: eil. Private to "ligne": gn. Private to "limbe": bm.
"ligne" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "limbe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ligne" for "limbe" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ligne" or "limbe"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "ligne" and "limbe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ligne" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "limbe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #242,213 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ligne" and "limbe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lemme vs limbe". 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 #242,213 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.