lincevslinhaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,653
“lince” frequency rank
#582
“linha” frequency rank
41235
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lince linha
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 o que tem comprimento sem largura

Where the eye mixes lince and linha

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lince and linha follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
lince
5 ch
linha

Look-alike desk: lince vs linha

A purely visual mix-up. lince (/ˈlĩ.sɨ/) and linha (/ˈli.ɲɐ/) 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 41235, 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/. linha is at rank #582, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈli.ɲɐ/.

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 41235, this pair ranks #24,719 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lince vs linha

Shared letters: iln. Private to "lince": ce. Private to "linha": ah.

"lince" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "linha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lince ← ilnce · licne · lincce · linec · linnce · llince · lnice
  • linha ← ilnha · lihna · linah · linhha · linnha · llinha · lniha

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lince" for "linha" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈlĩ.sɨ/ versus /ˈli.ɲɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lince" or "linha"?
"linha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #582 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lince" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "linha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,719 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lince" and "linha" 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 #24,719 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