lav

/læv/

//læv// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"lav" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“lav” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #48,859) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#48,859
frequency rank, English
2,297
“L” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Clipping of lavatory.

Corpus desk

Index EN-lav · lav · English

lav · rank #48,859 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #48,859
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,297
  • PHOTO-FINISH Latour

Nearest frequency peer: Latour (-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 “lav”

Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below

corpus weight

What this shows Bars place “lav” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

lav vs le
33% similar
lav vs li
33% similar
lav vs Lt
0% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for lav
PropertyValue
Headwordlav
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/læv/
Letters3
Frequency rank#48,859
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Corpus rank beside confusables of “lav”

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).lavlands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Same rarity band neighbours include “Latour” (#48,858), “leapfrog” (#48,860), “lemur” (#48,861). Among 2,297 “L” headwords, “lav” is #48,859. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for lav is neighbouring look-alikes ("le", "li", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /læv/. Frequency #48,859 among 2,297 “L” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

lav has no tracked misspelling variants, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "le", "li", "Lt", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is lav, spelled L-A-V.

Definition

  1. 1
    Clipping of lavatory.
  2. 2
    Clipping of lavalier microphone.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how lav appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Please, miss, I need to go to the lav.
  2. If you had too much slap on when you went out . . . your mates say too much slap on your ecaf. Yeah. Oh really girl? Yes . . . Go in the lavs here and have a look.

Synonyms

bathroom

This word in other languages

retrete(Español)petit coin(Français)Klo(Deutsch)

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

How do you spell "lav"?
"lav" is spelled L-A-V. The IPA pronunciation is /læv/.
What does "lav" mean?
As a noun, "lav" means: Clipping of lavatory.
What words are commonly confused with "lav"?
"lav" is commonly confused with "le", "li", "Lt". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "lav"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "lav" is /læv/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "lav" come from?
"lav" is a English word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "lav", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Kop#48,852kno#48,851Irv#48,831meu#48,897

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list