lambvslimbsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,930
“lamb” frequency rank
#10,573
“limbs” frequency rank
17503
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lamb limbs
Definition A young sheep. plural of limb

Where the eye mixes lamb and limbs

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lamb
5 ch
limbs

Visual trap between lamb and limbs

A purely visual mix-up. lamb (/læm/) and limbs (/lɪmz/) 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 17503, 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/. limbs is at rank #10,573, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɪmz/.

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 17503, this pair ranks #451,025 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lamb vs limbs

Shared letters: blm. Private to "lamb": a. Private to "limbs": is.

"lamb" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "limbs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lambalmb · labm · lambb · lammb · llamb · lmab
  • limbsilmbs · libms · limbbs · limbss · limmbs · limsb · llimbs · lmibs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lamb" and "limbs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/læm/ versus /lɪmz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "lamb" or "limbs" show up more?
"lamb" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,930 in our English list, against #10,573 for "limbs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lamb" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "limbs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #451,025 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lamb" and "limbs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lambo vs limbs". 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 #451,025 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