lahvslambWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#44,894
“lah” frequency rank
#6,930
“lamb” frequency rank
51824
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lah lamb
Definition Alternative spelling of la. A young sheep.

Where the eye mixes lah and lamb

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

3 ch
lah
4 ch
lamb

Why the eye confuses lah with lamb

A purely visual mix-up. lah (/lɑː/) and lamb (/læm/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51824, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lah is recorded at frequency rank #44,894, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɑː/. lamb is at rank #6,930, tagged as anoun, pronounced /læm/.

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 51824, this pair ranks #162,183 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lah vs lamb

Shared letters: al. Private to "lah": h. Private to "lamb": bm.

"lah" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lamb" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lambalmb · labm · lambb · lammb · llamb · lmab

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lah" and "lamb" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/lɑː/ versus /læm/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "lah" or "lamb" show up more?
"lamb" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,930 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.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lamb" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #162,183 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lah" and "lamb" 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 #162,183 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