types are checked at runtime, right? Not entirely. There are type errors that are caught at compilation time. A stark difference is that Lisp has the idea tha

types are checked at runtime, right? Not entirely. There are type errors that are caught at compilation time. A stark difference is that Lisp has the idea that type checking is done on values, not on symbols. If the compiler can deduce that a value is going to conflict in a given context, it will flag the error. And types are checked at run time as well.