ladyvslawConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#3,599
“lady” frequency rank
#8,097
“law” frequency rank
11696
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lady law
Definition höfliche Bezeichnung weiblicher Person(en) Gesetz

Letter map: lady vs law

Shared letters muted; letters that set lady and law apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
lady
3 ch
law

Corpus notes: lady and law

lady and law are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11696, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lady is recorded at frequency rank #3,599, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈleɪdi]. law is at rank #8,097, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 11696, this pair ranks #1,968,432 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lady vs law

Shared letters: al. Private to "lady": dy. Private to "law": w.

"lady" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "law" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ladyaldy · laddy · ladyy · layd · lday · llady

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lady" for "law" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "lady" vs "law" - which ranks higher?
"lady" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,599 in our German list, against #8,097 for "law". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lady" and "law".

  • Full dictionary entry for "lady" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "law" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,968,432 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lady" and "law" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "law 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 #1,968,432 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