linervslinksConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#28,631
“liner” frequency rank
#45,149
“links” frequency rank
73780
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature liner links
Definition Paquebot de ligne. Terrain de golf.

Where the eye mixes liner and links

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

5 ch
liner
5 ch
links

Visual trap between liner and links

A purely visual mix-up. liner (\laj.nœʁ\) and links (\link\) 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 73780, 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\. links is at rank #45,149, tagged as anoun, pronounced \link\.

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 73780, this pair ranks #39,270 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of liner vs links

Shared letters: iln. Private to "liner": er. Private to "links": ks.

"liner" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "links" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • liner ← ilner · lienr · linerr · linner · linre · lliner · lnier
  • links ← ilnks · likns · linkks · linkss · linnks · linsk · llinks · lniks

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "liner" for "links" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\laj.nœʁ\ versus \link\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "liner" or "links"?
"liner" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,631 in our French list, against #45,149 for "links". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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 "links" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,270 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "liner" and "links" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "linges vs links". 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 #39,270 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