lawvsLosWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,097
“law” frequency rank
#469
“Los” frequency rank
8566
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature law Los
Definition Gesetz Schicksal, unbeeinflussbares Geschick

Letter map: law vs Los

Shared letters muted; letters that set law and Los apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
law
3 ch
Los

Corpus notes: law and Los

law and Los are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8566, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

law is recorded at frequency rank #8,097, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. Los is at rank #469, tagged as anoun, pronounced [loːs].

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 8566, this pair ranks #1,983,782 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of law vs Los

Shared letters: l. Private to "law": aw. Private to "Los": os.

"law" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Los" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "law" for "Los" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "law" vs "Los" - which ranks higher?
"Los" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #469 in our German list, against #8,097 for "law". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "law" vs "Los" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "law" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Los" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,983,782 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "law" and "Los" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "law vs puzzles". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,983,782 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