lince vs lindo, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“lince” is a noun and “lindo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,653
“lince” frequency rank: #1,216
“lindo” frequency rank: 41869
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	lince	lindo
Definition	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	bonito; belo; que tem beleza

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set lince and lindo apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

lince

5 ch

lindo

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lince is /ˈlĩ.sɨ/ while lindo is /ˈlĩ.du/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41869, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lince is recorded at frequency rank #40,653, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlĩ.sɨ/. lindo is at rank #1,216, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈlĩ.du/.

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 41869, this pair ranks #23,999 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lince vs lindo

Shared letters: iln. Private to "lince": ce. Private to "lindo": do.

"lince" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "lindo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

lince ← ilnce · licne · lincce · linec · linnce · llince · lnice
lindo ← ilndo · lidno · linddo · linndo · linod · llindo · lnido

Frequency comparison

lince#40,653

lindo#1,216

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lince" and "lindo" be used interchangeably?

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

Which is more common, "lince" or "lindo"?

"lindo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,216 in our Portuguese list, against #40,653 for "lince". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering lince vs lindo

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “lince”; for an adjective, it's “lindo”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “lince” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable