Which to use
“lake” is a noun and “late” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,564
- “lake” frequency rank
- #456
- “late” frequency rank
- 2020
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lake | late |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A large, landlocked stretch of water or similar liquid. | Near the end of a period of time. |
Where the eye mixes lake and late
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lake is /leɪk/ while late is /leɪt/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - k in “lake” becomes t in “late”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2020, 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/. 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 2020, this pair ranks #526,054 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lake vs late
Shared letters: ael. Private to "lake": k. Private to "late": t.
"lake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV