Which to use
“Lanze” is a noun and “laue” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,413
- “Lanze” frequency rank
- #38,872
- “laue” frequency rank
- 61285
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Lanze | laue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Waffe für den Nahkampf (als Stoßwaffe), aber auch im Fernkampf (als Wurfwaffe) wie ein Speer einsetzbar; lange Stange (mehrere Meter) mit einer Spitze aus besonders hartem Material | Nominativ Singular Femininum der starken Deklination des Positivs des Adjektivs lau |
Where the eye mixes Lanze and laue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Lanze runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against laue's 4 (CVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between Lanze and laue
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Lanze is [ˈlant͡sə] while laue is [ˈlaʊ̯ə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61285, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Lanze is recorded at frequency rank #22,413, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlant͡sə]. laue is at rank #38,872, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈlaʊ̯ə].
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 61285, this pair ranks #755,500 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of Lanze vs laue
Shared letters: ael. Private to "Lanze": nz. Private to "laue": u.
"Lanze" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "laue" · 4 letters · shape CVVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Lanze" and "laue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary German text, does "Lanze" or "laue" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "Lanze" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "laue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #755,500 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Lanze" and "laue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lame vs laue". 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 #755,500 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.