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PlainSpell

lap

/læp/noun, verb, adjective

lap is spelled L-A-P: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,309th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, lap means “The loose part of a coat; the lower part of a garment that plays loosely; a skirt; an apron” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of lap is laps.

How many letters and syllables are in lap?

Letters3: L-A-P
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing15 times per million words; the 5,309th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is lap?

Lap appears 15 times per million words in written English, the 5,309th 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 lap?

  • US /læp/
  • British /lap/
  • /lɛp/

Lap 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-lap.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-lap.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with lap?

11 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as lap from its last stressed vowel (/æp/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: pal, alp.

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 lap

  • laps plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • lapping participle, present
  • lapped participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does lap mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    The loose part of a coat; the lower part of a garment that plays loosely; a skirt; an apron.

  2. 2

    An edge; a border; a hem, as of cloth.

  3. 3

    The part of the clothing that lies on the knees or thighs when one sits down; that part of the person thus covered.

  4. 4

    A place of rearing and fostering.

  5. 5

    The upper legs of a seated person.

    The boy was sitting on his mother's lap.

  6. 6

    archaicThe female pudenda.

  7. 7

    A component that overlaps or covers any portion of itself or of an adjacent component.

  8. 8

    The act or process of lapping.

  9. 9

    That part of any substance or fixture which extends over, or lies upon, or by the side of, a part of another.

    the lap of a board

  10. 10

    The state or condition of being in part extended over or by the side of something else; or the extent of the overlapping.

    The second boat got a lap of half its length on the leader.

  11. 11

    The amount by which a slide valve at its half stroke overlaps a port in the seat, being equal to the distance the valve must move from its mid stroke position in order to begin to open the port. Used alone, lap refers to outside lap (see below).

  12. 12

    One circuit around a race track.

    to run twenty laps

  13. 13

    The traversal of one length of the pool, or (less commonly) one length and back again.

    to swim two laps

  14. 14

    In card playing and other games, the points won in excess of the number necessary to complete a game;–so called when they are counted in the score of the following game.

  15. 15

    A sheet, layer, or bat, of cotton fiber prepared for the carding machine.

  16. 16

    The taking of liquid into the mouth with the tongue.

  17. 17

    obsoleteslangLiquor; alcoholic drink.

  18. 18

    colloquialClipping of laparoscopy.

  19. 19

    colloquialClipping of laparotomy

verb

  1. 1

    To enfold; to hold as in one's lap; to cherish.

  2. 2

    To rest or recline in someone's lap, or as in a lap.

  3. 3

    To fold; to bend and lay over or on something.

    to lap a piece of cloth

  4. 4

    to wrap around, enwrap, wrap up

    to lap a bandage around a finger

  5. 5

    to envelop, enfold

    lapped in luxury

  6. 6

    to wind around

  7. 7

    To place or lay (one thing) so as to overlap another.

    One laps roof tiles so that water can run off.

  8. 8

    To polish (a surface, especially metal or gemstone) with very fine abrasive to achieve smoothness and small dimensional changes.

  9. 9

    To be turned or folded; to lie partly on or over something; to overlap.

    The cloth laps back.

  10. 10

    To overtake a straggler in a race by completing one more whole lap than the straggler.

  11. 11

    To take (liquid) into the mouth with the tongue; to lick up with a quick motion of the tongue.

    Don’t lap your soup like that! You look like a dog.

  12. 12

    To wash against a surface with a splashing sound; to swash.

noun

as LAP
  1. 1

    Initialism of load, assemble, pack (“munitions operations”).

adjective

  1. 1

    colloquialClipping of laparoscopic.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Lap in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcôté (lower part of a garment that plays loosely), giron (part that lies on the knees or thighs when one…), genoux (upper legs of a seated person), prendre un tour (sports, motor racing: to overtake a straggler…), tour de circuit, tour (sports: one circuit around a race track)
Portugueseregaço (lower part of a garment that plays loosely), colo (part that lies on the knees or thighs when one…), volta (sports: one circuit around a race track), borda (edge; border; hem)
Spanishvolado (lower part of a garment that plays loosely), regazo, falda (part that lies on the knees or thighs when one…), doblar, sacar una vuelta a (sports, motor racing: to overtake a straggler…), dobladillo (edge; border; hem)
GermanSchoß, Schoss (upper legs of a seated person), überrunden (sports, motor racing: to overtake a straggler…), Runde (sports: one circuit around a race track), läppen ((transitive) To polish, e.g., a surface, until…), überlappen ((intransitive) To lie partly on or over…)

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 lap come from?

From Middle English lappe, from Old English læppa (“skirt or flap of a garment”), from Proto-West Germanic *lappō, from Proto-Germanic *lappô (“cloth; rag”), of uncertain origin, possibly Proto-Indo-European *leb- (“to hang loosely”). Cognate with Dutch lap (“cloth; rag”), German Lappen (“cloth; lobe; flap”), Icelandic leppur (“rag; patch”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after lap