Which to use
“lah” is a noun and “late” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,894
- “lah” frequency rank
- #456
- “late” frequency rank
- 45350
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lah | late |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Alternative spelling of la. | Near the end of a period of time. |
Where the eye mixes lah and late
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lah runs 3 letters (CVC) against late's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses lah with late
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lah is /lɑː/ while late is /leɪt/. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45350, 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/. late is at rank #456, tagged as anadj, pronounced /leɪt/.
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 45350, this pair ranks #222,077 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lah vs late
Shared letters: al. Private to "lah": h. Private to "late": et.
"lah" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- late ← alte · laet · llate · ltae
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lah" and "late" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "lah" or "late"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "lah" and "late" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "late" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #222,077 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lah" and "late" 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 #222,077 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.