lavvsloadWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“lav” and “load” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,859
“lav” frequency rank
#2,587
“load” frequency rank
51446
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lav load
Definition Clipping of lavatory. A burden; a weight to be carried.

Where the eye mixes lav and load

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
lav
4 ch
load

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. lav (/læv/) and load (/loʊd/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51446, 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/. load is at rank #2,587, tagged as anoun, pronounced /loʊd/.

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 51446, this pair ranks #165,420 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lav vs load

Shared letters: al. Private to "lav": v. Private to "load": do.

"lav" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "load" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loadlaod · lload · loadd · loda · olad

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lav" and "load" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/læv/ versus /loʊd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lav" or "load"?
"load" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,587 in our English list, against #48,859 for "lav". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list