linkvslookConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#12,611
“link” frequency rank
#5,474
“look” frequency rank
18085
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature link look
Definition (Non comparable, utilisé uniquement comme épithète, sans prédicat) Gauche, de gauche. Aspect, apparence, style, allure.

Where the eye mixes link and look

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

4 ch
link
4 ch
look

Why the eye confuses link with look

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: link is \lɪŋk\ while look is \luk\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18085, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

link is recorded at frequency rank #12,611, classified as anadj, pronounced \lɪŋk\. look is at rank #5,474, tagged as anoun, pronounced \luk\.

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 18085, this pair ranks #380,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of link vs look

Shared letters: kl. Private to "link": in. Private to "look": o.

"link" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "look" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • linkilnk · likn · linkk · linnk · llink · lnik
  • lookllook · lok · loko · lookk · olok

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "link" for "look" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "link" is an adjective and "look" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "link" or "look" show up more?
"look" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,474 in our French list, against #12,611 for "link". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "link" and "look" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "link" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "look" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #380,071 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "link" and "look" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "link vs lung". 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 #380,071 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