lakevslarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,564
“lake” frequency rank
#40,323
“lar” frequency rank
41887
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lake lar
Definition A large, landlocked stretch of water or similar liquid. singular of lares: a household god, particularly overseeing the family itself.

Where the eye mixes lake and lar

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

4 ch
lake
3 ch
lar

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. lake (/leɪk/) and lar (/lɑː/) 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 41887, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lake is recorded at frequency rank #1,564, classified as anoun, pronounced /leɪk/. lar is at rank #40,323, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɑː/.

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 41887, this pair ranks #254,229 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lake vs lar

Shared letters: al. Private to "lake": ek. Private to "lar": r.

"lake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lar" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lakealke · laek · lakke · lkae · llake

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lake" and "lar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/leɪk/ versus /lɑː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lake" or "lar"?
"lake" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,564 in our English list, against #40,323 for "lar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list