Which to use
“laces” and “ladies” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,812
- “laces” frequency rank
- #2,301
- “ladies” frequency rank
- 27113
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | laces | ladies |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of lace | plural of lady |
Where the eye mixes laces and ladies
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. laces runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against ladies's 6 (CVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: laces vs ladies
A purely visual mix-up. laces (/ˈleɪ.sɪz/) and ladies (/ˈleɪ.diz/) 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 27113, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
laces is recorded at frequency rank #24,812, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈleɪ.sɪz/. ladies is at rank #2,301, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈleɪ.diz/.
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 27113, this pair ranks #381,513 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of laces vs ladies
Shared letters: aels. Private to "laces": c. Private to "ladies": di.
"laces" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "ladies" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "laces" and "ladies" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "laces" or "ladies" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "laces" and "ladies" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "laces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "ladies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #381,513 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "laces" and "ladies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laces vs laver". 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 #381,513 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.