Which to use
“late” is an adjective and “life” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,348
- “late” frequency rank
- #2,842
- “life” frequency rank
- 17190
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | late | life |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | spät | Leben: die Eigenschaft lebendiger Wesen, die den Toten und den anorganischen Sachen fehlt |
Letter map: late vs life
Shared letters muted; letters that set late and life apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for late / life
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: late is anadjective and lifeanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17190, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
late is recorded at frequency rank #14,348, classified as anadj, pronounced […]. life is at rank #2,842, tagged as anoun, pronounced [laɪf].
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 17190, this pair ranks #1,929,588 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of late vs life
Shared letters: el. Private to "late": at. Private to "life": fi.
"late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "life" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "late" for "life" ever safe?
Which is more common, "late" or "life"?
What to do next
Pair "late" vs "life" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "late" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "life" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #1,929,588 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "late" and "life" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "late vs puzzles". 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 #1,929,588 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.