labsvslängsConfusable pair

Quick tell: labs is a noun, längs is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“labs” is a noun and “längs” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,163
“labs” frequency rank
#18,976
“längs” frequency rank
52139
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature labs längs
Definition Plural des Substantivs lab in der Längsachse

Letter map: labs vs längs

Shared letters muted; letters that set labs and längs apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
labs
5 ch
längs

Role in the sentence - labs and längs

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: labs is anoun and längsanadverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52139, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

labs is recorded at frequency rank #33,163, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. längs is at rank #18,976, tagged as anadv, pronounced [lɛŋs].

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 52139, this pair ranks #1,108,526 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of labs vs längs

Shared letters: ls. Private to "labs": ab. Private to "längs": gnä.

"labs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "längs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • labsalbs · labbs · labss · lasb · llabs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "labs" for "längs" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "labs" is a noun and "längs" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "labs" or "längs" show up more?
"längs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,976 in our German list, against #33,163 for "labs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "labs" and "längs".

  • Full dictionary entry for "labs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "längs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,108,526 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "labs" and "längs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "labs vs puzzles". 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 #1,108,526 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list