Which to use
“laud” and “lays” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,152
- “laud” frequency rank
- #11,734
- “lays” frequency rank
- 58886
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | laud | lays |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Glorification or praise. | plural of lay |
Where the eye mixes laud and lays
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. laud and lays follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: laud vs lays
A purely visual mix-up. laud (/lɔːd/) and lays (/leɪz/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58886, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
laud is recorded at frequency rank #47,152, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɔːd/. lays is at rank #11,734, tagged as anoun, pronounced /leɪz/.
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 58886, this pair ranks #109,631 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of laud vs lays
Shared letters: al. Private to "laud": du. Private to "lays": sy.
"laud" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "lays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "laud" and "lays" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "laud" vs "lays" - which ranks higher?
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 "laud" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lays" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #109,631 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "laud" and "lays" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laud vs lav". 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 #109,631 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.