lanevslinceTell them apart

Which to use

“lane” and “lince” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,517
“lane” frequency rank
#40,653
“lince” frequency rank
50170
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lane lince
Definition alameda designação comum a três espécies de mamíferos do gênero Felis, da família dos felídeos, com cauda curta ou muito curta e tufos de pelos nas orelhas

Where the eye mixes lane and lince

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lane runs 4 letters (CVCV) against lince's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
lane
5 ch
lince

Why the eye confuses lane with lince

A purely visual mix-up. lane (/leɪn/) and lince (/ˈlĩ.sɨ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50170, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lane is recorded at frequency rank #9,517, classified as anoun, pronounced /leɪn/. lince is at rank #40,653, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlĩ.sɨ/.

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 50170, this pair ranks #14,822 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lane vs lince

Shared letters: eln. Private to "lane": a. Private to "lince": ci.

"lane" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lince" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lane ← alne · laen · lanne · llane · lnae
  • lince ← ilnce · licne · lincce · linec · linnce · llince · lnice

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lane" for "lince" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/leɪn/ versus /ˈlĩ.sɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lane" or "lince"?
"lane" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,517 in our Portuguese list, against #40,653 for "lince". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lane" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lince" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,822 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lane" and "lince" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lime vs lince". 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 #14,822 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list