larvslassWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#40,323
“lar” frequency rank
#26,145
“lass” frequency rank
66468
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lar lass
Definition singular of lares: a household god, particularly overseeing the family itself. A girl; also (by extension), a young woman.

Where the eye mixes lar and lass

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

3 ch
lar
4 ch
lass

Why the eye confuses lar with lass

A purely visual mix-up. lar (/lɑː/) and lass (/læs/) 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 66468, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lar is recorded at frequency rank #40,323, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɑː/. lass is at rank #26,145, tagged as anoun, pronounced /læs/.

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 66468, this pair ranks #67,838 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lar vs lass

Shared letters: al. Private to "lar": r. Private to "lass": s.

"lar" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lass" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lassalss · llass · lsas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lar" and "lass" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/lɑː/ versus /læs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lar" vs "lass" - which ranks higher?
"lass" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,145 in our English list, against #40,323 for "lar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lass" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,838 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lar" and "lass" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lar vs LSC". 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 #67,838 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