Which to use
“lass” and “lassie” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,145
- “lass” frequency rank
- #41,221
- “lassie” frequency rank
- 67366
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lass | lassie |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A girl; also (by extension), a young woman. | A young girl, a lass, especially one seen as a sweetheart. |
Where the eye mixes lass and lassie
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lass vs lassie
A purely visual mix-up. lass (/læs/) and lassie (/ˈlæsi/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “lass” sits inside “lassie”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67366, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lass is recorded at frequency rank #26,145, classified as anoun, pronounced /læs/. lassie is at rank #41,221, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlæsi/.
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 67366, this pair ranks #63,644 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lass vs lassie
Shared letters: als. Private to "lass": -. Private to "lassie": ei.
"lass" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lassie" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lass" for "lassie" ever safe?
Which is more common, "lass" or "lassie"?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "lass" and "lassie" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lass" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lassie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #63,644 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lass" and "lassie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lassie vs lessee". 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 #63,644 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.