lacyvslahTell them apart

Quick tell: lacy is a adjective, lah is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lacy” is an adjective and “lah” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,558
“lacy” frequency rank
#44,894
“lah” frequency rank
66452
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lacy lah
Definition Made of lace or decorated with it. Alternative spelling of la.

Where the eye mixes lacy and lah

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lacy
3 ch
lah

Visual trap between lacy and lah

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lacy is /ˈleɪ.si/ while lah is /lɑː/. 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 66452, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lacy is recorded at frequency rank #21,558, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈleɪ.si/. lah is at rank #44,894, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɑː/.

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 66452, this pair ranks #67,897 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lacy vs lah

Shared letters: al. Private to "lacy": cy. Private to "lah": h.

"lacy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lah" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lacyalcy · laccy · lacyy · layc · llacy

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lacy" and "lah" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lacy" is an adjective and "lah" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lacy" or "lah"?
"lacy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,558 in our English list, against #44,894 for "lah". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "lacy" and "lah" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lacy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lah" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,897 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lacy" and "lah" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lah vs LSC". 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 #67,897 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