lawsvslewTell them apart

Which to use

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

#38,251
“laws” frequency rank
#34,242
“lew” frequency rank
72493
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laws lew
Definition Plural des Substantivs law Löwe (Panthera leo)

Letter map: laws vs lew

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

4 ch
laws
3 ch
lew

Pair insight - laws / lew

laws and lew 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72493, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laws is recorded at frequency rank #38,251, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. lew is at rank #34,242, tagged as anoun, pronounced [lɛf].

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 72493, this pair ranks #386,856 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laws vs lew

Shared letters: lw. Private to "laws": as. Private to "lew": e.

"laws" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "lew" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lawsalws · lasw · lawss · lawws · llaws · lwas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "laws" for "lew" ever safe?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "laws" vs "lew" - which ranks higher?
"lew" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,242 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.

Useful next steps

Pair "laws" vs "lew" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "laws" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lew" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #386,856 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laws" and "lew" 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 #386,856 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