lang vs lean, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#17,555
“lang” frequency rank: #29,804
“lean” frequency rank: 47359
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	lang	lean
Definition	por	magro, sem excessos, sem peso extra, enxuto

Letter map: lang vs lean

Shared letters muted; letters that set lang and lean apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch

lang

4 ch

lean

Role in the sentence - lang and lean

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lang is anadverb and leananadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47359, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lang is recorded at frequency rank #17,555, classified as anadv. lean is at rank #29,804, tagged as anadj, pronounced /liːn/.

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 47359, this pair ranks #17,896 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lang vs lean

Shared letters: aln. Private to "lang": g. Private to "lean": e.

"lang" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lean" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

lang ← alng · lagn · langg · lanng · llang · lnag
lean ← elan · leann · lena · llean

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lang" for "lean" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lang" is an adverb and "lean" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Frequency check: "lang" vs "lean" - which ranks higher?

"lang" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,555 in our Portuguese list, against #29,804 for "lean". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lang" and "lean".

Full dictionary entry for "lang" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "lean" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #17,896 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"lang" and "lean" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lean vs Leben". 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 #17,896 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.