linervslinkTell them apart

Quick tell: liner is a noun, link is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“liner” is a noun and “link” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,631
“liner” frequency rank
#12,611
“link” frequency rank
41242
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature liner link
Definition Paquebot de ligne. (Non comparable, utilisé uniquement comme épithète, sans prédicat) Gauche, de gauche.

Where the eye mixes liner and link

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
liner
4 ch
link

Look-alike desk: liner vs link

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: liner is \laj.nœʁ\ while link is \lɪŋk\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41242, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

liner is recorded at frequency rank #28,631, classified as anoun, pronounced \laj.nœʁ\. link is at rank #12,611, tagged as anadj, pronounced \lɪŋk\.

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 41242, this pair ranks #234,535 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of liner vs link

Shared letters: iln. Private to "liner": er. Private to "link": k.

"liner" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "link" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • linerilner · lienr · linerr · linner · linre · lliner · lnier
  • linkilnk · likn · linkk · linnk · llink · lnik

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "liner" and "link" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "liner" is a noun and "link" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "liner" vs "link" - which ranks higher?
"link" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,611 in our French list, against #28,631 for "liner". 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 "liner" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "link" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #234,535 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "liner" and "link" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "liker vs liner". 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 #234,535 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