Which to use
“lake” and “life” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,319
- “lake” frequency rank
- #2,842
- “life” frequency rank
- 13161
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lake | life |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Stillgewässer, das vollständig von einer Landfläche umgeben ist; See | Leben: die Eigenschaft lebendiger Wesen, die den Toten und den anorganischen Sachen fehlt |
Where the eye mixes lake and life
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lake and life follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses lake with life
A purely visual mix-up. lake ([leɪk]) and life ([laɪf]) 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 13161, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lake is recorded at frequency rank #10,319, classified as anoun, pronounced [leɪk]. life is at rank #2,842, tagged as anoun, pronounced [laɪf].
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 13161, this pair ranks #1,959,736 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lake vs life
Shared letters: el. Private to "lake": ak. Private to "life": fi.
"lake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "life" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lake" and "life" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "lake" or "life"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "lake" and "life" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lake" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "life" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,959,736 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lake" and "life" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lake 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 #1,959,736 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.