Which to use
“ladle” and “lapse” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,744
- “ladle” frequency rank
- #15,206
- “lapse” frequency rank
- 58950
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ladle | lapse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A deep-bowled spoonlike utensil with a long, usually curved, handle. | A temporary failure; a slip. |
Where the eye mixes ladle and lapse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ladle and lapse follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: ladle vs lapse
A purely visual mix-up. ladle (/ˈleɪ.dəl/) and lapse (/læps/) 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 58950, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ladle is recorded at frequency rank #43,744, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈleɪ.dəl/. lapse is at rank #15,206, tagged as anoun, pronounced /læps/.
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 58950, this pair ranks #109,243 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ladle vs lapse
Shared letters: ael. Private to "ladle": d. Private to "lapse": ps.
"ladle" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "lapse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ladle" for "lapse" ever safe?
Which is more common, "ladle" or "lapse"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "ladle" and "lapse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "ladle" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lapse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #109,243 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ladle" and "lapse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ladle vs Lally". 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 #109,243 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.