lane
/leɪn/noun
lane is spelled L-A-N-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 37 times per million words in written English, the 2,618th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, lane means “A road, street, or similar thoroughfare” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of lane is lanes.
How many letters and syllables are in lane?
| Letters | 4: L-A-N-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 37 times per million words; the 2,618th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is lane?
Lane appears 37 times per million words in written English, the 2,618th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce lane?
- US /leɪn/
Lane has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-lane.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with lane
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: lain (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with lane?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as lane from its last stressed vowel (/eɪn/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: lean, neal, elan.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of lane
- lanes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does lane mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A road, street, or similar thoroughfare.
Penny Lane
- 2
A narrow passageway between fences, walls, hedges or trees.
There's a shortcut to the shops through this leafy lane.
- 3
A narrow road, as in the country.
- 4
A lengthwise division of roadway intended for a single line of vehicles.
Drivers should overtake in the outside lane
- 5
A similar division of a racetrack to keep runners apart.
There are eight lanes on an Olympic running track.
- 6
A similar division of a swimming pool using lines of coloured floats to keep swimmers apart.
a swimming lane
- 7
Any of a number of parallel tracks or passages.
the checkout lanes in a supermarket
- 8
A course designated for ships or aircraft.
shipping lane
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate lane?
Wiktionary records 6 abbreviations of lane: La, Ln, la, la., ln, ln..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Lane in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | chemin, ruelle, allée , voie , couloir aérien, couloir |
| German | Gasse , Spur, Streifen , Pfädchen , Bahn , Durchgang |
| Portuguese | alameda , pista, faixa, via de trânsito , raia |
| Spanish | camino , carril, canal, carrilera, senda , calle |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does lane come from?
From Middle English lane, lone, from Old English lanu (“a lane, alley, avenue”), from Proto-West Germanic *lanu, from Proto-Germanic *lanō (“lane, passageway”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).