labelvslameWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“label” and “lame” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#5,885
“label” frequency rank
#6,523
“lame” frequency rank
12408
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature label lame
Definition Marque distinctive créée par un syndicat professionnel ou un organisme public, apposée sur un produit commercialisé pour en garantir la qualité, la conformité aux normes de fabrication, pour en souligner la spécificité et le distinguer des produits concurrents. Solide aplati, d’épaisseur mince, feuille, tôle, plaque.

Where the eye mixes label and lame

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
label
4 ch
lame

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. label (\la.bɛl\) and lame (\lam\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12408, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

label is recorded at frequency rank #5,885, classified as anoun, pronounced \la.bɛl\. lame is at rank #6,523, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lam\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 12408, this pair ranks #405,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of label vs lame

Shared letters: ael. Private to "label": b. Private to "lame": m.

"label" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "lame" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • labelalbel · labbel · labell · lable · laebl · lbael · llabel
  • lamealme · laem · lamme · llame · lmae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "label" and "lame" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\la.bɛl\ versus \lam\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "label" or "lame"?
"label" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,885 in our French list, against #6,523 for "lame". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "label" and "lame". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "label" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lame" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #405,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "label" and "lame" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lago vs lame". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list