English homophones
lacks/lax
"lacks" (#8,444 written frequency) beats "lax" (#14,157) in this 2-word /læks/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Frequency splits the cluster
These 2 spellings keep the same /læks/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "lacks" leads at #8,444, with "lax" trailing at #14,157.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- Shared stem "la" then splits - "lacks" (5 letters) vs "lax" (3).
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across lacks, lax: al. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
lacks
5 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVCCC
Inventory ackls · private cks
lax
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory alx · private x
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "lacks" when you mean: plural of lack
- Write "lax" when you mean: A salmon.
Known mistypes of these spellings
Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.
- lacks ← alcks · laccks · lackks · lackss · lacsk · lakcs
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (lacks, lax). Here's where to go from here.
- "lacks" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #8,444 in English). Full entry
- Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 2 spellings ranks #133 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
- Explore a nearby 2-spelling cluster: Lexi · Lexie. Nearby cluster
- Each spelling in "lacks, lax" has its own headword page with definition, IPA, and misspelling variants. First entry
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.