Which to use
“lapse” and “louse” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,206
- “lapse” frequency rank
- #47,167
- “louse” frequency rank
- 62373
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lapse | louse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A temporary failure; a slip. | A small parasitic wingless insect of the order Psocodea. |
Where the eye mixes lapse and louse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lapse (CVCCV) and louse (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between lapse and louse
A purely visual mix-up. lapse (/læps/) and louse (/laʊs/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62373, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lapse is recorded at frequency rank #15,206, classified as anoun, pronounced /læps/. louse is at rank #47,167, tagged as anoun, pronounced /laʊs/.
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 62373, this pair ranks #88,860 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lapse vs louse
Shared letters: els. Private to "lapse": ap. Private to "louse": ou.
"lapse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "louse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lapse" and "louse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "lapse" vs "louse" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "lapse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "louse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #88,860 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lapse" and "louse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lope vs louse". 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 #88,860 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.