Which to use
“lacing” is a verb and “lagging” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,579
- “lacing” frequency rank
- #22,134
- “lagging” frequency rank
- 68713
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lacing | lagging |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of lace | falling behind, not keeping up the pace |
Letter map: lacing vs lagging
Shared letters muted; letters that set lacing and lagging apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Part-of-speech tell for lacing / lagging
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lacing is averb and lagginganadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68713, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lacing is recorded at frequency rank #46,579, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈleɪsɪŋ/. lagging is at rank #22,134, 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 68713, this pair ranks #57,652 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lacing vs lagging
Shared letters: agiln. Private to "lacing": c. Private to "lagging": -.
"lacing" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "lagging" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lacing" for "lagging" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "lacing" or "lagging" show up more?
After this comparison
You've compared "lacing" and "lagging". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "lacing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lagging" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #57,652 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lacing" and "lagging" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lacing vs loring". 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 #57,652 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.