Which to use
“lung” and “lynx” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,871
- “lung” frequency rank
- #23,925
- “lynx” frequency rank
- 70796
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lung | lynx |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Poumon. | Une des espèces de félins sauvages ressemblant à un gros chat, dont la face est ornée de favoris et d’oreilles triangulaires surmontées d’une touffe de poil, et le corps doté d’une courte queue et de longues pattes. |
Where the eye mixes lung and lynx
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lung and lynx follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between lung and lynx
A purely visual mix-up. lung (\lʌŋ\) and lynx (\lɛ̃ks\) 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 70796, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lung is recorded at frequency rank #46,871, classified as anoun, pronounced \lʌŋ\. lynx is at rank #23,925, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɛ̃ks\.
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 70796, this pair ranks #49,983 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lung vs lynx
Shared letters: ln. Private to "lung": gu. Private to "lynx": xy.
"lung" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lynx" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lung" and "lynx" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "lung" vs "lynx" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "lung" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lynx" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #49,983 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lung" and "lynx" 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 #49,983 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.