lag behind
"lag-behind" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lag behind” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To fail to keep pace; to fail to keep up with one's peers; to achieve or impress less than one's peers; to move more slowly than one's peers.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lag-behind · lag behind · English
lag behind · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "L" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lag behind |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “lag behind” in English
Rare enough to double-check
lag behind is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To fail to keep pace; to fail to keep up with one's peers; to achieve or impress less than one's peers; to move more slowly than one's peers.".
No generated misspelling entries exist for lag behind in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.
This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is lag behind, spelled L-A-G- -B-E-H-I-N-D.
Definition
- 1To fail to keep pace; to fail to keep up with one's peers; to achieve or impress less than one's peers; to move more slowly than one's peers.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how lag behind appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Liam was lagging behind in the race.
Until now these for the most part have lagged far behind those of Western Europe in speed; over the longer distances average speeds well below 40 m.p.h. have been the rule.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.