lama
/ˈlɑː.mə/
"lama" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lama” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #15,445 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #15,445
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 3
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A master of Tibetan Buddhism.
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) |
Where “lama” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for lama is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈlɑː.mə/. Corpus data places it at rank #15,445 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "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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Using “lama”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-A-M-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈlɑː.mə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “LM” - see the side-by-side comparison. lama vs LM
- 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.