Which to use
“limace” and “lime” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,984
- “limace” frequency rank
- #24,271
- “lime” frequency rank
- 67255
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | limace | lime |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Mollusque gastéropode, à coquille plate très réduite, de forme allongée. | Outil de fer ou d’acier, plus ou moins long et étroit, d’une forme plate, ronde ou triangulaire, dont la surface est couverte d’entailles qui se croisent, et qui sert à dégrossir, à couper, à polir des métaux. |
Where the eye mixes limace and lime
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses limace with lime
A purely visual mix-up. limace (\li.mas\) and lime (\lim\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67255, 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\. lime is at rank #24,271, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lim\.
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 67255, this pair ranks #64,212 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of limace vs lime
Shared letters: eilm. Private to "limace": ac. Private to "lime": -.
"limace" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "lime" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "limace" and "lime" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "limace" vs "lime" - which ranks higher?
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 "limace" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lime" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #64,212 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "limace" and "lime" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lace vs limace". 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 #64,212 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.