lab vs lav, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“lab” and “lav” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#3,506
“lab” frequency rank: #48,859
“lav” frequency rank: 52365
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	lab	lav
Definition	A laboratory.	Clipping of lavatory.

Where the eye mixes lab and lav

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

lab

3 ch

lav

Why the eye confuses lab with lav

A purely visual mix-up. lab (/læb/) and lav (/læv/) 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 a single letter - b in “lab” becomes v in “lav”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52365, 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/. lav is at rank #48,859, tagged as anoun, pronounced /læv/.

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 52365, this pair ranks #157,666 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lab vs lav

Shared letters: al. Private to "lab": b. Private to "lav": v.

"lab" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "lav" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lab" for "lav" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (/læb/ versus /læv/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Frequency check: "lab" vs "lav" - which ranks higher?

"lab" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,506 in our English list, against #48,859 for "lav". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "lab" and "lav" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "lab" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "lav" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #157,666 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"lab" and "lav" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lav vs LSC". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #157,666 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.