lacvsLackeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“lac” and “Lacke” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#37,041
“lac” frequency rank
#45,413
“Lacke” frequency rank
82454
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lac Lacke
Definition See kleine Flüssigkeitsansammlung; Ansammlung von Regenwasser, Pfütze, kleines Gewässer

Where the eye mixes lac and Lacke

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lac runs 3 letters (CVC) against Lacke's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
lac
5 ch
Lacke

Visual trap between lac and Lacke

A purely visual mix-up. lac ([lak]) and Lacke ([ˈlakə]) 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 extra letter(s) - “lac” sits inside “Lacke”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82454, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lac is recorded at frequency rank #37,041, classified as anoun, pronounced [lak]. Lacke is at rank #45,413, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlakə].

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 82454, this pair ranks #157,008 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lac vs Lacke

Shared letters: acl. Private to "lac": -. Private to "Lacke": ek.

"lac" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Lacke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lacke ← alcke · laccke · lacek · lackke · lakce · lcake · llacke

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lac" for "Lacke" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([lak] versus [ˈlakə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lac" or "Lacke"?
"lac" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,041 in our German list, against #45,413 for "Lacke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Lacke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #157,008 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lac" and "Lacke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lacke vs lame". 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 #157,008 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