lauvsLrTell them apart

Quick tell: lau is a adjective, Lr is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lau” is an adjective and “Lr” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,210
“lau” frequency rank
#23,611
“Lr” frequency rank
39821
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lau Lr
Definition von einer mittleren Temperatur zwischen kühl und warm Lawrencium

Letter map: lau vs Lr

Shared letters muted; letters that set lau and Lr apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
lau
2 ch
Lr

Role in the sentence - lau and Lr

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lau is anadjective and Lranabbrev. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39821, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lau is recorded at frequency rank #16,210, classified as anadj, pronounced [laʊ̯]. Lr is at rank #23,611, tagged as anabbrev.

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 39821, this pair ranks #1,525,939 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lau vs Lr

Shared letters: l. Private to "lau": au. Private to "Lr": r.

"lau" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "Lr" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lau" for "Lr" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lau" is an adjective and "Lr" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary German text, does "lau" or "Lr" show up more?
"lau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,210 in our German list, against #23,611 for "Lr". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lau" and "Lr".

  • Full dictionary entry for "lau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Lr" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,525,939 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lau" and "Lr" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lori vs Lr". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,525,939 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