Which to use
“limbe” and “limbes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #39,880
- “limbe” frequency rank
- #32,048
- “limbes” frequency rank
- 71928
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | limbe | limbes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Bord, généralement gradué, d’un instrument de mesure circulaire. | 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. |
Same sound, different letters: limbe vs limbes
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 5 letters. limbe runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against limbes's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Ear matches; page differs - limbe and limbes
This is the hard kind. limbe and limbes are pronounced identically (\lɛ̃b\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “limbe” sits inside “limbes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71928, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
limbe is recorded at frequency rank #39,880, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɛ̃b\. 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 71928, this pair ranks #45,784 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of limbe vs limbes
Shared letters: beilm. Private to "limbe": -. Private to "limbes": s.
"limbe" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "limbes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "limbe" for "limbes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "limbe" vs "limbes" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
"limbe" and "limbes" share a sound, keep the gloss open, then jump to the headword or a nearby trap.
- Full dictionary entry for "limbe" 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 #45,784 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "limbe" and "limbes" 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 #45,784 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.