linnvslungTell them apart

Which to use

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

#46,866
“linn” frequency rank
#46,871
“lung” frequency rank
93737
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature linn lung
Definition Ville. Poumon.

Where the eye mixes linn and lung

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. linn and lung follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
linn
4 ch
lung

Why the eye confuses linn with lung

A purely visual mix-up. linn (\linʲˑ\) and lung (\lʌŋ\) 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 93737, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

linn is recorded at frequency rank #46,866, classified as anoun, pronounced \linʲˑ\. lung is at rank #46,871, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lʌŋ\.

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 93737, this pair ranks #2,083 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of linn vs lung

Shared letters: ln. Private to "linn": i. Private to "lung": gu.

"linn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "lung" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • linn ← ilnn · llinn · lnin
  • lung ← llung · lnug · lugn · lungg · lunng · ulng

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "linn" for "lung" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\linʲˑ\ versus \lʌŋ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "linn" vs "lung" - which ranks higher?
"linn" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,866 in our French list, against #46,871 for "lung". 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 "linn" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lung" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,083 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "linn" and "lung" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "longo 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 #2,083 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