lacesvslakerConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#24,812
“laces” frequency rank
#35,382
“laker” frequency rank
60194
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laces laker
Definition plural of lace One engaged in sport; a player; an actor.

Where the eye mixes laces and laker

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

5 ch
laces
5 ch
laker

Look-alike desk: laces vs laker

A purely visual mix-up. laces (/ˈleɪ.sɪz/) and laker (/ˈleɪkə(ɹ)/) 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 60194, 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/. laker is at rank #35,382, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈleɪkə(ɹ)/.

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 60194, this pair ranks #101,664 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laces vs laker

Shared letters: ael. Private to "laces": cs. Private to "laker": kr.

"laces" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "laker" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laces ← alces · lacces · lacess · lacse · laecs · lcaes · llaces
  • laker ← alker · laekr · lakerr · lakker · lakre · lkaer · llaker

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "laces" and "laker" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈleɪ.sɪz/ versus /ˈleɪkə(ɹ)/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "laces" or "laker"?
"laces" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,812 in our English list, against #35,382 for "laker". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "laces" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "laker" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #101,664 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laces" and "laker" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laker 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 #101,664 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