lama
/ˈlɑː.mə/
"lama" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lama” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #15,445) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #15,445
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
- 3
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A master of Tibetan Buddhism.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lama · lama · English
lama · rank #15,445 · 3 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #15,445
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-LOW 3 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH Krishna
Nearest frequency peer: Krishna (-1 rank slots)
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.
Frequency neighbours of confusable “lama”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- kidnap
kidnap
84,560 corpus weight
- Kiev
Kiev
84,559 corpus weight
- Krishna
Krishna
84,557 corpus weight
- lama
lama
84,556 corpus weight
- McLean
McLean
84,553 corpus weight
- meats
meats
84,552 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “lama” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lama |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈlɑː.mə/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #15,445 |
| Misspellings tracked | 3 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “lama”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for lama is neighbouring look-alikes ("LM", "law", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /ˈlɑː.mə/. Frequency #15,445 among 2,297 “L” headwords. Gloss: "A master of Tibetan Buddhism.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 3 likely wrong-spelling variants for lama, with forms such as "laam", "lamma", and "lmaa". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "LM", "law", "lay", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Tibetan བླ་མ (bla ma). The correct English form is lama, spelled L-A-M-A.
Definition
- 1A master of Tibetan Buddhism.
Etymology
From Tibetan བླ་མ (bla ma).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- laam
- lamma
- lmaa
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of lama - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "lama", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).