lawsvspuzzlesConfusable pair

Quick tell: laws is a noun, puzzles is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#38,251
“laws” frequency rank
#49,986
“puzzles” frequency rank
88237
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laws puzzles
Definition Plural des Substantivs law 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs puzzle

Letter map: laws vs puzzles

Shared letters muted; letters that set laws and puzzles apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. laws runs 4 letters (CVCC) against puzzles's 7 (CVCCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
laws
7 ch
puzzles

Grammar separator: laws vs puzzles

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: laws is anoun and puzzlesaverb. On the page they differ by 3 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 88237, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laws is recorded at frequency rank #38,251, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. puzzles is at rank #49,986, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 88237, this pair ranks #70,722 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laws vs puzzles

Shared letters: ls. Private to "laws": aw. Private to "puzzles": epuz.

"laws" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "puzzles" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laws ← alws · lasw · lawss · lawws · llaws · lwas
  • puzzles ← ppuzzles · puzles · puzlzes · puzzels · puzzless · puzzlles · puzzlse · pzuzles

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "laws" for "puzzles" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "laws" is a noun and "puzzles" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "laws" vs "puzzles" - which ranks higher?
"laws" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,251 in our German list, against #49,986 for "puzzles". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "laws" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "puzzles" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,722 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laws" and "puzzles" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "purpose 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 #70,722 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