Which to use
“lab” and “laud” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #3,506
- “lab” frequency rank
- #47,152
- “laud” frequency rank
- 50658
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lab | laud |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A laboratory. | Glorification or praise. |
Where the eye mixes lab and laud
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lab vs laud
A purely visual mix-up. lab (/læb/) and laud (/lɔːd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50658, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lab is recorded at frequency rank #3,506, classified as anoun, pronounced /læb/. laud is at rank #47,152, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɔːd/.
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 50658, this pair ranks #172,278 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lab vs laud
Shared letters: al. Private to "lab": b. Private to "laud": du.
"lab" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "laud" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- laud ← ladu · laudd · llaud · luad
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lab" and "laud" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "lab" or "laud" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "lab" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "laud" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #172,278 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lab" and "laud" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laud vs lav". 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 #172,278 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.