Which to use
“lav” is a noun and “lex” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,859
- “lav” frequency rank
- #14,983
- “lex” frequency rank
- 63842
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lav | lex |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Clipping of lavatory. | To perform lexical analysis; to convert a character stream to a token stream as a preliminary to parsing. |
Where the eye mixes lav and lex
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lav is /læv/ while lex is /lɛks/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63842, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lav is recorded at frequency rank #48,859, classified as anoun, pronounced /læv/. lex is at rank #14,983, tagged as averb, pronounced /lɛks/.
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 63842, this pair ranks #80,799 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lav vs lex
Shared letters: l. Private to "lav": av. Private to "lex": ex.
"lav" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "lex" · 3 letters · shape CVC