Which to use
“lin” and “lupin” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,118
- “lin” frequency rank
- #34,171
- “lupin” frequency rank
- 42289
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lin | lupin |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Plante herbacée de la famille des Linacées, à feuilles simples, à fleurs généralement bleues, cultivée dans les pays tempérés pour ses graines oléagineuses et pour la fibre textile que fournit sa tige. | Fabacée à feuilles disposées en éventail. → voir Lupinus |
Where the eye mixes lin and lupin
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lin runs 3 letters (CVC) against lupin's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: lin vs lupin
A purely visual mix-up. lin (\lɛ̃\) and lupin (\ly.pɛ̃\) 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 42289, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lin is recorded at frequency rank #8,118, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɛ̃\. lupin is at rank #34,171, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ly.pɛ̃\.
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 42289, this pair ranks #226,732 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lin vs lupin
Shared letters: iln. Private to "lin": -. Private to "lupin": pu.
"lin" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "lupin" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- lupin ← llupin · lpuin · luipn · lupinn · lupni · luppin · ulpin
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lin" for "lupin" ever safe?
Which is more common, "lin" or "lupin"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "lin" and "lupin" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lupin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #226,732 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lin" and "lupin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "login vs lupin". 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 #226,732 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.