Which to use
“laced” is an adjective and “lances” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #19,882
- “laced” frequency rank
- #48,314
- “lances” frequency rank
- 68196
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | laced | lances |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Fastened with lace or laces (light cordage). | plural of lance |
Where the eye mixes laced and lances
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. laced runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against lances's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: laced vs lances
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: laced is /leɪst/ while lances is /ˈlænsɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68196, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
laced is recorded at frequency rank #19,882, classified as anadj, pronounced /leɪst/. lances is at rank #48,314, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlænsɪz/.
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 68196, this pair ranks #60,000 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of laced vs lances
Shared letters: acel. Private to "laced": d. Private to "lances": ns.
"laced" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "lances" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "laced" and "lances" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "laced" or "lances"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "laced" and "lances" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "laced" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lances" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #60,000 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "laced" and "lances" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lances vs Laney". 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 #60,000 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.