lamevsLauteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#49,857
“lame” frequency rank
#6,948
“Laute” frequency rank
56805
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lame Laute
Definition dünne Platte, dünne Schicht, Klinge Saiteninstrument mit birnenförmigem Korpus und angesetztem Hals

Where the eye mixes lame and Laute

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

4 ch
lame
5 ch
Laute

Look-alike desk: lame vs Laute

A purely visual mix-up. lame ([lam]) and Laute ([ˈlaʊ̯tə]) 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 56805, 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]. Laute is at rank #6,948, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯tə].

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 56805, this pair ranks #925,924 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lame vs Laute

Shared letters: ael. Private to "lame": m. Private to "Laute": tu.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lamealme · laem · lamme · llame · lmae
  • Lautealute · latue · lauet · llaute · luate

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lame" and "Laute" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([lam] versus [ˈlaʊ̯tə]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lame" vs "Laute" - which ranks higher?
"Laute" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,948 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "lame" and "Laute" 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 "Laute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #925,924 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lame" and "Laute" 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 #925,924 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