lambvslasTell them apart

Which to use

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

#6,930
“lamb” frequency rank
#4,463
“las” frequency rank
11393
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lamb las
Definition A young sheep. plural of la

Where the eye mixes lamb and las

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

4 ch
lamb
3 ch
las

Visual trap between lamb and las

A purely visual mix-up. lamb (/læm/) and las (/lɑːz/) 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 11393, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lamb is recorded at frequency rank #6,930, classified as anoun, pronounced /læm/. las is at rank #4,463, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɑːz/.

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 11393, this pair ranks #487,293 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lamb vs las

Shared letters: al. Private to "lamb": bm. Private to "las": s.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lamb" and "las" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/læm/ versus /lɑːz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lamb" vs "las" - which ranks higher?
"las" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,463 in our English list, against #6,930 for "lamb". 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 "lamb" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "las" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #487,293 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lamb" and "las" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lamb 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 #487,293 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