lames
/leɪmz/
"lames" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lames” is uncommon English (frequency #85,434 among 16,425 “L” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #85,434
- frequency rank, English
- 16,425
- “L” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - third-person singular simple present indicative of lame
Corpus desk
Index EN-lames · lames · English
lames · rank #85,434 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #85,434
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 16,425
- PHOTO-FINISH Kwak
Nearest frequency peer: Kwak (-4 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 neighbourhood for “lames”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Krk
Krk
14,573 corpus weight
- Kwak
Kwak
14,571 corpus weight
- lames
lames
14,567 corpus weight
- lantana
lantana
14,563 corpus weight
- laugher
laugher
14,561 corpus weight
- Ledecky
Ledecky
14,558 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “lames” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lames |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /leɪmz/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #85,434 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lames” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
lames is uncommon English at frequency #85,434 among 16,425 “L” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /leɪmz/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "third-person singular simple present indicative of lame".
No misspelling variants are generated for lames in our index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct English form is lames, spelled L-A-M-E-S.
Definition
- 1third-person singular simple present indicative of lame
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "lames", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
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.