Which to use
“late” is an adjective and “life” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #456
- “late” frequency rank
- #134
- “life” frequency rank
- 590
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | late | life |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Near the end of a period of time. | The state of organisms preceding their death, characterized by biological processes such as metabolism and reproduction and distinguishing them from inanimate objects; the state of being alive and living. |
Where the eye mixes late and life
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: late is /leɪt/ while life is /laɪf/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 590, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
late is recorded at frequency rank #456, classified as anadj, pronounced /leɪt/. life is at rank #134, tagged as anoun, pronounced /laɪf/.
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 590, this pair ranks #529,151 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of late vs life
Shared letters: el. Private to "late": at. Private to "life": fi.
"late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "life" · 4 letters · shape CVCV