limacesvslimbesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#35,580
“limaces” frequency rank
#32,048
“limbes” frequency rank
67628
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature limaces limbes
Definition Pluriel de limace. Lieu où étaient, suivant certains théologiens catholiques, les âmes de ceux qui étaient morts dans la grâce de Dieu avant la venue de Jésus-Christ, ou séjour des âmes des enfants morts sans baptême.

Where the eye mixes limaces and limbes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. limaces runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against limbes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
limaces
6 ch
limbes

Look-alike desk: limaces vs limbes

A purely visual mix-up. limaces (\li.mas\) and limbes (\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 67628, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

limaces is recorded at frequency rank #35,580, classified as anoun, pronounced \li.mas\. limbes is at rank #32,048, 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 67628, this pair ranks #62,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of limaces vs limbes

Shared letters: eilms. Private to "limaces": ac. Private to "limbes": b.

"limaces" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "limbes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • limaces ← ilmaces · liamces · limacces · limacess · limacse · limaecs · limcaes · limmaces
  • limbes ← ilmbes · libmes · limbbes · limbess · limbse · limebs · limmbes · llimbes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "limaces" and "limbes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
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.
In ordinary French text, does "limaces" or "limbes" show up more?
"limbes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,048 in our French list, against #35,580 for "limaces". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "limaces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "limbes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #62,580 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "limaces" and "limbes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "limaces vs limes". 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 #62,580 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