legsvslosWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#2,163
“legs” frequency rank
#1,728
“los” frequency rank
3891
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature legs los
Definition plural of leg A medium-sized wildcat, most of them part of the genus Lynx.

Where the eye mixes legs and los

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

4 ch
legs
3 ch
los

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. legs (/lɛɡz/) and los (/lɒs/) 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 3891, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

legs is recorded at frequency rank #2,163, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɛɡz/. los is at rank #1,728, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɒs/.

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 3891, this pair ranks #520,651 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of legs vs los

Shared letters: ls. Private to "legs": eg. Private to "los": o.

"legs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "los" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • legselgs · leggs · legss · lesg · lges · llegs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "legs" and "los" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/lɛɡz/ versus /lɒs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "legs" or "los"?
"los" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,728 in our English list, against #2,163 for "legs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "legs" and "los". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "legs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "los" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #520,651 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "legs" and "los" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "legs vs lel". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list