Which to use
“lashed” and “laughed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,609
- “lashed” frequency rank
- #4,771
- “laughed” frequency rank
- 33380
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lashed | laughed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of lash | simple past and past participle of laugh |
Where the eye mixes lashed and laughed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lashed vs laughed
A purely visual mix-up. lashed (/læʃt/) and laughed (/læft/) 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 33380, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lashed is recorded at frequency rank #28,609, classified as averb, pronounced /læʃt/. laughed is at rank #4,771, tagged as averb, pronounced /læft/.
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 33380, this pair ranks #329,953 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lashed vs laughed
Shared letters: adehl. Private to "lashed": s. Private to "laughed": gu.
"lashed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "laughed" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lashed" and "laughed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "lashed" or "laughed"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "lashed" and "laughed" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lashed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "laughed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #329,953 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lashed" and "laughed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lashed vs loathed". 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 #329,953 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.