laborvslazarConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,763
“labor” frequency rank
#37,065
“lazar” frequency rank
38828
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature labor lazar
Definition Alternative spelling of labour. Synonym of leper: a person suffering from Hansen's disease; a person suffering any contagious disease requiring similar isolation.

Where the eye mixes labor and lazar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. labor and lazar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
labor
5 ch
lazar

Look-alike desk: labor vs lazar

A purely visual mix-up. labor (/ˈleɪ.bɚ/) and lazar (/ˈleɪzə/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38828, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

labor is recorded at frequency rank #1,763, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈleɪ.bɚ/. lazar is at rank #37,065, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈleɪzə/.

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 38828, this pair ranks #282,328 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of labor vs lazar

Shared letters: alr. Private to "labor": bo. Private to "lazar": z.

"labor" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "lazar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • labor ← albor · labbor · laborr · labro · laobr · lbaor · llabor
  • lazar ← alzar · laazr · lazarr · lazra · lazzar · llazar · lzaar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "labor" for "lazar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈleɪ.bɚ/ versus /ˈleɪzə/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "labor" vs "lazar" - which ranks higher?
"labor" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,763 in our English list, against #37,065 for "lazar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "labor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lazar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #282,328 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "labor" and "lazar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laver vs lazar". 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 #282,328 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list