Which to use
“lame” is a noun and “late” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #49,857
- “lame” frequency rank
- #14,348
- “late” frequency rank
- 64205
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lame | late |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | dünne Platte, dünne Schicht, Klinge | spät |
Letter map: lame vs late
Shared letters muted; letters that set lame and late apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. lame and late follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Role in the sentence - lame and late
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lame is anoun and lateanadjective. On the page they differ by a single letter - m in “lame” becomes t in “late”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64205, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lame is recorded at frequency rank #49,857, classified as anoun, pronounced [lam]. late is at rank #14,348, tagged as anadj, 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 64205, this pair ranks #649,795 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lame vs late
Shared letters: ael. Private to "lame": m. Private to "late": t.
"lame" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lame" and "late" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary German text, does "lame" or "late" show up more?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lame" and "late".
- Full dictionary entry for "lame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "late" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #649,795 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lame" and "late" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lähmt 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 #649,795 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.