lawsvslessWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: laws is a noun, less is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“laws” is a noun and “less” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,251
“laws” frequency rank
#30,180
“less” frequency rank
68431
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laws less
Definition Plural des Substantivs law weniger von etwas

Letter map: laws vs less

Shared letters muted; letters that set laws and less apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
laws
4 ch
less

Grammar separator: laws vs less

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: laws is anoun and lessanadverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68431, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laws is recorded at frequency rank #38,251, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. less is at rank #30,180, tagged as anadv, pronounced [lɛs].

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 68431, this pair ranks #507,982 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laws vs less

Shared letters: ls. Private to "laws": aw. Private to "less": e.

"laws" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "less" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lawsalws · lasw · lawss · lawws · llaws · lwas
  • lesselss · les · leß · lless · lses

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "laws" and "less" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "laws" is a noun and "less" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "laws" vs "less" - which ranks higher?
"less" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,180 in our German list, against #38,251 for "laws". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "laws" and "less".

  • Full dictionary entry for "laws" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "less" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #507,982 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laws" and "less" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laws 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 #507,982 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