lamevsLaubeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#49,857
“lame” frequency rank
#30,171
“Laube” frequency rank
80028
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lame Laube
Definition dünne Platte, dünne Schicht, Klinge kleines offenes oder geschlossenes Gartenhaus zum vorübergehenden Aufenthalt von Personen oder zum Unterstellen von Geräten

Where the eye mixes lame and Laube

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lame runs 4 letters (CVCV) against Laube's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
lame
5 ch
Laube

Visual trap between lame and Laube

A purely visual mix-up. lame ([lam]) and Laube ([ˈlaʊ̯bə]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80028, 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]. Laube is at rank #30,171, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯bə].

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 80028, this pair ranks #204,006 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lame vs Laube

Shared letters: ael. Private to "lame": m. Private to "Laube": bu.

"lame" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Laube" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lame ← alme · laem · lamme · llame · lmae
  • Laube ← alube · labue · laubbe · laueb · llaube · luabe

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lame" for "Laube" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([lam] versus [ˈlaʊ̯bə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lame" vs "Laube" - which ranks higher?
"Laube" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,171 in our German list, against #49,857 for "lame". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "lame" and "Laube" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lame" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Laube" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #204,006 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lame" and "Laube" 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 #204,006 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