Which to use
“labs” and “lips” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,240
- “labs” frequency rank
- #46,867
- “lips” frequency rank
- 77107
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | labs | lips |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de lab. | Pluriel de lip. |
Where the eye mixes labs and lips
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. labs and lips follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses labs with lips
A purely visual mix-up. labs (\læbz\) and lips (\ˈlɪps\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77107, 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\. lips is at rank #46,867, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈlɪps\.
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 77107, this pair ranks #29,297 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of labs vs lips
Shared letters: ls. Private to "labs": ab. Private to "lips": ip.
"labs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lips" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "labs" and "lips" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "labs" vs "lips" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "labs" and "lips" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "labs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lips" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #29,297 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "labs" and "lips" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lep vs lips". 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 #29,297 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.