Which to use
“lie” and “lince” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #31,038
- “lie” frequency rank
- #40,653
- “lince” frequency rank
- 71691
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lie | lince |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | mentira | 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 lie and lince
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lie runs 3 letters (CVV) against lince's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: lie vs lince
A purely visual mix-up. lie (/ˈlaɪ/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71691, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lie is recorded at frequency rank #31,038, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlaɪ/. 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 71691, this pair ranks #3,266 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lie vs lince
Shared letters: eil. Private to "lie": -. Private to "lince": cn.
"lie" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "lince" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- lince ← ilnce · licne · lincce · linec · linnce · llince · lnice
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lie" and "lince" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "lie" or "lince" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "lie" 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 #3,266 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lie" 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 #3,266 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.