lamevsLauneConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#49,857
“lame” frequency rank
#4,136
“Laune” frequency rank
53993
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lame Laune
Definition dünne Platte, dünne Schicht, Klinge Gemütszustand; wie sich jemand fühlt oder worauf jemand gerade Lust hat

Where the eye mixes lame and Laune

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lame
5 ch
Laune

Look-alike desk: lame vs Laune

A purely visual mix-up. lame ([lam]) and Laune ([ˈlaʊ̯nə]) 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 53993, 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]. Laune is at rank #4,136, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯nə].

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 53993, this pair ranks #1,036,234 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lame vs Laune

Shared letters: ael. Private to "lame": m. Private to "Laune": nu.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lamealme · laem · lamme · llame · lmae
  • Launealune · lanue · launne · llaune · luane

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lame" and "Laune" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([lam] versus [ˈlaʊ̯nə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary German text, does "lame" or "Laune" show up more?
"Laune" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,136 in our German list, against #49,857 for "lame". 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 "lame" and "Laune" 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 "Laune" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,036,234 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lame" and "Laune" 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 #1,036,234 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