Which to use
“lac” and “laud” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,379
- “lac” frequency rank
- #47,152
- “laud” frequency rank
- 66531
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lac | laud |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A resinous substance or lacquer produced mainly on the banyan tree by the female of Kerria lacca, a scale insect. | Glorification or praise. |
Where the eye mixes lac and laud
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lac vs laud
A purely visual mix-up. lac (/læk/) 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 66531, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lac is recorded at frequency rank #19,379, classified as anoun, pronounced /læk/. 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 66531, this pair ranks #67,546 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lac vs laud
Shared letters: al. Private to "lac": c. Private to "laud": du.
"lac" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "laud" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- laud ← ladu · laudd · llaud · luad
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lac" and "laud" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "lac" or "laud" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "lac" 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 #67,546 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lac" 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 #67,546 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.