Which to use
“lawn” and “lays” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,358
- “lawn” frequency rank
- #11,734
- “lays” frequency rank
- 19092
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lawn | lays |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Ground (generally in front of or around a house) covered with grass kept closely mown. | plural of lay |
Where the eye mixes lawn and lays
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lawn (CVCC) and lays (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: lawn vs lays
A purely visual mix-up. lawn (/lɔːn/) 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 19092, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lawn is recorded at frequency rank #7,358, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɔːn/. 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 19092, this pair ranks #440,578 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lawn vs lays
Shared letters: al. Private to "lawn": nw. Private to "lays": sy.
"lawn" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lays" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lawn" for "lays" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lawn" vs "lays" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "lawn" and "lays" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lawn" 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 #440,578 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lawn" and "lays" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lav vs lays". 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 #440,578 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.