limevsloreWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#24,271
“lime” frequency rank
#41,873
“lore” frequency rank
66144
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lime lore
Definition 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. Partie entre l’œil et la base du bec chez les oiseaux.

Where the eye mixes lime and lore

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lime
4 ch
lore

Look-alike desk: lime vs lore

A purely visual mix-up. lime (\lim\) and lore (\lɔʁ\) 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 66144, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lime is recorded at frequency rank #24,271, classified as anoun, pronounced \lim\. lore is at rank #41,873, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɔʁ\.

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 66144, this pair ranks #69,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lime vs lore

Shared letters: el. Private to "lime": im. Private to "lore": or.

"lime" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lore" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • limeilme · liem · limme · llime · lmie
  • lorellore · loer · lorre · lroe · olre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lime" and "lore" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\lim\ versus \lɔʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lime" vs "lore" - which ranks higher?
"lime" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,271 in our French list, against #41,873 for "lore". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lime" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lore" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,087 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lime" and "lore" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs lore". 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 #69,087 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