limesvsliséeConfusable pair

Quick tell: limes is a noun, lisée is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“limes” is a noun and “lisée” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,011
“limes” frequency rank
#17,181
“lisée” frequency rank
65192
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature limes lisée
Definition Système de fortifications établi au long de certaines des frontières de l’Empire romain. Participe passé féminin singulier du verbe liser.

Where the eye mixes limes and lisée

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. limes (CVCVC) and lisée (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
limes
5 ch
lisée

Look-alike desk: limes vs lisée

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: limes is \li.mɛs\ while lisée is \li.ze\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65192, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

limes is recorded at frequency rank #48,011, classified as anoun, pronounced \li.mɛs\. lisée is at rank #17,181, tagged as averb, pronounced \li.ze\.

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 65192, this pair ranks #73,432 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of limes vs lisée

Shared letters: eils. Private to "limes": m. Private to "lisée": é.

"limes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "lisée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • limes ← ilmes · liems · limess · limmes · limse · llimes · lmies

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "limes" for "lisée" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "limes" is a noun and "lisée" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "limes" vs "lisée" - which ranks higher?
"lisée" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,181 in our French list, against #48,011 for "limes". 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 "limes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lisée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,432 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "limes" and "lisée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "liker 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 #73,432 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