lay

[ˈlaj]

/[ˈlaj]/ noun

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

The verdict

“lay” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #35,585) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#35,585
frequency rank, Spanish
2,069
“L” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Composición poética medieval de los provenzales y de los franceses, destinada a relatar una leyenda o historia de amores, generalmente en versos cortos.

Corpus desk

Index ES-lay · lay · Spanish

lay · rank #35,585 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #35,585
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,069
  • PHOTO-FINISH Lavados

Nearest frequency peer: Lavados (-1 rank slots)

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.

Vecinos de frecuencia del confusable “lay”

Pares de peso similar en el corpus, aparte de los confusables abajo

corpus weight

What this shows Las barras sitúan “lay” frente a los lemas españoles más cercanos por rango, no un reprint del escritorio de confusables.

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).

lay vs lo
33% similar
lay vs le
33% similar
lay vs li
33% similar

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

Key facts for lay
PropertyValue
Headwordlay
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˈlaj]
Letters3
Frequency rank#35,585
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rango de corpus junto a confusables de “lay”

De izquierda a derecha: las pocas palabras que cargan el habla diaria, luego la cola larga casi invisible.laycae aquí:

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

La escala es logarítmica (cada marca ≈ 10× más rara). En la misma franja de rareza aparecen “Lavados” (#35,584), “lacan” (#35,583), “Leeds” (#35,587). Entre 2,069 lemas con “L”, “lay” va en #35,585. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for lay is neighbouring look-alikes ("lo", "le", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced [ˈlaj]. Frequency #35,585 among 2,069 “L” headwords. Gloss: "Composición poética medieval de los provenzales y de los franceses, destinada a relatar una leyenda o historia de amores, generalmente en versos cortos.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for lay, a sign its spelling follows regular Spanish conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "lo", "le", "li", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

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 Spanish form is lay, spelled L-A-Y.

Definition

  1. 1
    Composición poética medieval de los provenzales y de los franceses, destinada a relatar una leyenda o historia de amores, generalmente en versos cortos.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

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

  1. Si todas las fuerzas políticas y sociales lo asedian con demandas, es porque en la Argentina la Iglesia tiene un inmenso poder. Jamás habrá un religioso que no reaccione a una crítica sin entonar un lay victimista.

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 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "lay"?
"lay" is spelled L-A-Y. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈlaj].
What does "lay" mean?
As a noun, "lay" means: Composición poética medieval de los provenzales y de los franceses, destinada a relatar una leyenda o historia de amores, generalmente en versos cortos.
What words are commonly confused with "lay"?
"lay" is commonly confused with "lo", "le", "li". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "lay"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "lay" is [ˈlaj]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "lay" come from?
"lay" is a Spanish 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 Spanish words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

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

Lía#35,600det#35,459seu#35,751ski#35,760

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list