lacedvslappedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,882
“laced” frequency rank
#40,776
“lapped” frequency rank
60658
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laced lapped
Definition Fastened with lace or laces (light cordage). Being one or more complete laps behind the leader in a race.

Letter map: laced vs lapped

Shared letters muted; letters that set laced and lapped apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. laced runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against lapped's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
laced
6 ch
lapped

Spelling & dictionary notes on laced vs lapped

laced and lapped are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60658, 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/. lapped is at rank #40,776, tagged as anadj.

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 60658, this pair ranks #98,903 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laced vs lapped

Shared letters: adel. Private to "laced": c. Private to "lapped": p.

"laced" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "lapped" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laced ← alced · lacced · lacde · lacedd · laecd · lcaed · llaced
  • lapped ← alpped · laped · lapepd · lappde · lappedd · llapped · lpaped

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "laced" and "lapped" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "laced" vs "lapped" - which ranks higher?
"laced" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,882 in our English list, against #40,776 for "lapped". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "laced" and "lapped".

  • Full dictionary entry for "laced" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lapped" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #98,903 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laced" and "lapped" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lapped vs leaped". 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 #98,903 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