labsvslauWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: labs is a noun, lau is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“labs” is a noun and “lau” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,240
“labs” frequency rank
#24,267
“lau” frequency rank
54507
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature labs lau
Definition Pluriel de lab. Tiède.

Letter map: labs vs lau

Shared letters muted; letters that set labs and lau apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
labs
3 ch
lau

Role in the sentence - labs and lau

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: labs is anoun and lauanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54507, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

labs is recorded at frequency rank #30,240, classified as anoun, pronounced \læbz\. lau is at rank #24,267, tagged as anadj.

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 54507, this pair ranks #133,539 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of labs vs lau

Shared letters: al. Private to "labs": bs. Private to "lau": u.

"labs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "lau" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • labsalbs · labbs · labss · lasb · lbas · llabs

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "labs" for "lau" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "labs" is a noun and "lau" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "labs" vs "lau" - which ranks higher?
"lau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,267 in our French list, against #30,240 for "labs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "labs" and "lau".

  • Full dictionary entry for "labs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lau" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #133,539 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "labs" and "lau" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "labs vs lobo". 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

Confusion rank #133,539 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list