lai
French, noun/lɛ/
lai is spelled L-A-I (3 letters) and appears 2.2 times per million words in written French, the 19,241st most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Lai is a French masculine noun meaning “lai (a mostly North European medieval form of lyrical, narrative poem written in octosyllabic couplets that often deals with tales of…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Petit poème narratif, en vers octosyllabique, inspiré de sujets sérieux ou passionnés, empruntés le plus…”.
What does lai mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinelai (a mostly North European medieval form of lyrical, narrative poem written in octosyllabic couplets that often deals with tales of adventure and romance, with stanzas that do not repeat)
adjective
- 1
archaiclay (not clerical)
- 2
who is employed for domestic services; only used in frère lai and sœur laie
Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How French dictionaries define it
adjective: 1. Laïc, convers. 2. Séculier.
noun: 1. Petit poème narratif, en vers octosyllabique, inspiré de sujets sérieux ou passionnés, empruntés le plus souvent à d’anciennes légendes.
The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.
Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of lai
- lais plural
- laie feminine
- laies feminine plural
Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce lai?
- /lɛ/
- \lɛ\
Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
How common is lai in French?
lai appears 2.2 times per million words in written French.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).