Which to use
“lass” is a noun and “leans” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #26,145
- “lass” frequency rank
- #20,409
- “leans” frequency rank
- 46554
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lass | leans |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A girl; also (by extension), a young woman. | third-person singular simple present indicative of lean |
Where the eye mixes lass and leans
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses lass with leans
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lass is /læs/ while leans is /liːnz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46554, 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/. leans is at rank #20,409, tagged as averb, pronounced /liːnz/.
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 46554, this pair ranks #210,682 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lass vs leans
Shared letters: als. Private to "lass": -. Private to "leans": en.
"lass" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "leans" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lass" and "leans" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "lass" or "leans" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "lass" and "leans" 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 "leans" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #210,682 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lass" and "leans" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lass 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 #210,682 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.