lahvslaudConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#44,894
“lah” frequency rank
#47,152
“laud” frequency rank
92046
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lah laud
Definition Alternative spelling of la. Glorification or praise.

Where the eye mixes lah and laud

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lah runs 3 letters (CVC) against laud's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
lah
4 ch
laud

Why the eye confuses lah with laud

A purely visual mix-up. lah (/lɑː/) and laud (/lɔːd/) 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 92046, 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/. laud is at rank #47,152, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɔːd/.

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 92046, this pair ranks #2,904 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lah vs laud

Shared letters: al. Private to "lah": h. Private to "laud": du.

"lah" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "laud" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laud ← ladu · laudd · llaud · luad

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lah" and "laud" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/lɑː/ versus /lɔːd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lah" vs "laud" - which ranks higher?
"lah" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #44,894 in our English list, against #47,152 for "laud". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lah" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "laud" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,904 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lah" and "laud" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laud vs lav". 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 #2,904 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