limacevslimbeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#42,984
“limace” frequency rank
#39,880
“limbe” frequency rank
82864
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature limace limbe
Definition Mollusque gastéropode, à coquille plate très réduite, de forme allongée. Bord, généralement gradué, d’un instrument de mesure circulaire.

Where the eye mixes limace and limbe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
limace
5 ch
limbe

Visual trap between limace and limbe

A purely visual mix-up. limace (\li.mas\) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82864, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

limace is recorded at frequency rank #42,984, classified as anoun, pronounced \li.mas\. 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 82864, this pair ranks #15,864 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of limace vs limbe

Shared letters: eilm. Private to "limace": ac. Private to "limbe": b.

"limace" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "limbe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • limaceilmace · liamce · limacce · limaec · limcae · limmace · llimace · lmiace
  • limbeilmbe · libme · limbbe · limeb · limmbe · llimbe · lmibe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "limace" and "limbe" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\li.mas\ versus \lɛ̃b\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "limace" or "limbe"?
"limbe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,880 in our French list, against #42,984 for "limace". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "limace" 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 #15,864 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "limace" 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 #15,864 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