lignéevslionneWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,875
“lignée” frequency rank
#29,845
“lionne” frequency rank
38720
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lignée lionne
Definition Ensemble des humains qui font partie d’une même famille généalogique. Femelle du lion (Panthera leo sur Wikispecies ).

Where the eye mixes lignée and lionne

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. lignée (CVCCVV) and lionne (CVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
lignée
6 ch
lionne

Visual trap between lignée and lionne

A purely visual mix-up. lignée (\li.ɲe\) and lionne (\ljɔn\) 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 38720, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lignée is recorded at frequency rank #8,875, classified as anoun, pronounced \li.ɲe\. lionne is at rank #29,845, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ljɔn\.

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 38720, this pair ranks #253,300 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lignée vs lionne

Shared letters: eiln. Private to "lignée": gé. Private to "lionne": o.

"lignée" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "lionne" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lionne ← ilonne · linone · lione · lionen · llionne · loinne

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lignée" and "lionne" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\li.ɲe\ versus \ljɔn\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lignée" or "lionne"?
"lignée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,875 in our French list, against #29,845 for "lionne". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lignée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lionne" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #253,300 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lignée" and "lionne" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "linn vs lionne". 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 #253,300 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