lag behind
"lag-behind" is a 9-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lag behind” is outside the top-ranked English vocabulary, used as a verb - the kind of word writers most often double-check.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 10
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 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.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lag behind |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 10 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lag behind” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for lag behind is 10 letters long, classified as a verb. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “lag behind”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-A-G- -B-E-H-I-N-D - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.