lacvsLosTell them apart

Which to use

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

#37,041
“lac” frequency rank
#469
“Los” frequency rank
37510
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lac Los
Definition See Schicksal, unbeeinflussbares Geschick

Where the eye mixes lac and Los

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
lac
3 ch
Los

Look-alike desk: lac vs Los

A purely visual mix-up. lac ([lak]) and Los ([loːs]) 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 37510, 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]. Los is at rank #469, tagged as anoun, pronounced [loːs].

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 37510, this pair ranks #1,588,313 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lac vs Los

Shared letters: l. Private to "lac": ac. Private to "Los": os.

"lac" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Los" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lac" and "Los" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([lak] versus [loːs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "lac" or "Los" show up more?
"Los" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #469 in our German list, against #37,041 for "lac". 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 "lac" and "Los" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Los" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,588,313 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lac" and "Los" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lac vs lame". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,588,313 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