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Lag or leg?

lag is an adjective meaning “Late”; leg is a noun meaning “A limb or appendage that an animal uses for support or locomotion on land”. Use lag as an adjective and leg as a noun (leg is also an adjective: “Alternative spelling of leg”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) leg is about 9.8 times as common as lag.

lagorleg

What is the difference between lag and leg?

lagleg
Part of speechadjective, noun, verbnoun, verb, adjective, adverb
Meaning

Late

Last made; hence, made of refuse; inferior

A gap, a delay; an interval created by something not keeping up; a latency

A limb or appendage that an animal uses for support or locomotion on land

In humans, the lower limb extending from the groin to the ankle

To remove the legs from an animal carcass

ExampleMy phone is starting to lagInsects have six legs
Formsnonelegs
Pronunciation/læɡ/ /laɡ/ /læːɡ//lɛɡ/ [lɛɡ] /leɡ/
In writing4.7 times per million words46 times per million words

Sources: lag and leg in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Every current meaning of lag and leg

lag

  1. 1

    adjective Late

  2. 2

    noun A gap, a delay; an interval created by something not keeping up; a latency

  3. 3

    verb To fail to keep up (the pace), to fall behind

  4. 4

    adjective Loose (inclined to play many starting hands, including weak ones) and aggressive (inclined to raise often)

  5. 5

    adjective Last made; hence, made of refuse; inferior

  6. 6

    noun Delay; latency

  7. 7

    verb To cover (for example, pipes) with felt strips or similar material

  8. 8

    noun IrelandUKslangA prisoner, a criminal

leg

  1. 1

    noun A limb or appendage that an animal uses for support or locomotion on land

    Insects have six legs

  2. 2

    verb To remove the legs from an animal carcass

  3. 3

    noun Alternative spelling of leg.

  4. 4

    adjective Alternative spelling of leg.

  5. 5

    noun CanadaClipping of legislature

    One argument made a lot in the leg. was that the bill would simplify voting

  6. 6

    noun Abbreviation of legislation

  7. 7

    adjective Abbreviation of legal

  8. 8

    adverb Abbreviation of legato

Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.

Which is more common, lag or leg?

lag appears 4.7 times per million words; leg 46 times per million words.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

The words