leastvsLhasaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: least is a adjective, Lhasa is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“least” is an adjective and “Lhasa” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#348
“least” frequency rank
#44,899
“Lhasa” frequency rank
45247
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature least Lhasa
Definition Chiefly preceded by the: superlative form of little: most little. The capital city of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China.

Where the eye mixes least and Lhasa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
least
5 ch
Lhasa

Look-alike desk: least vs Lhasa

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: least is /liːst/ while Lhasa is /ˈlɑːsə/. 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 name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45247, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

least is recorded at frequency rank #348, classified as anadj, pronounced /liːst/. Lhasa is at rank #44,899, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈlɑːsə/.

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 45247, this pair ranks #223,018 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of least vs Lhasa

Shared letters: als. Private to "least": et. Private to "Lhasa": h.

"least" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "Lhasa" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • leastelast · laest · leasst · leastt · leats · lesat · lleast
  • Lhasahlasa · lahsa · lhaas · lhassa · lhhasa · lhsaa · llhasa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "least" and "Lhasa" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "least" is an adjective and "Lhasa" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "least" or "Lhasa" show up more?
"least" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #348 in our English list, against #44,899 for "Lhasa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "least" and "Lhasa" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "least" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Lhasa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #223,018 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "least" and "Lhasa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lhasa vs llama". 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 #223,018 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list