lacvsldWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lac is a noun, ld is a symbol, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lac” is a noun and “ld” is a symbol - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,775
“lac” frequency rank
#33,328
“ld” frequency rank
35103
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lac ld
Definition Grande étendue d’eau complètement entourée de terres, généralement d’eau douce. Symbole du logarithme binaire (à base 2).

Letter map: lac vs ld

Shared letters muted; letters that set lac and ld apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
lac
2 ch
ld

Role in the sentence - lac and ld

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lac is anoun and ldasymbol. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35103, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lac is recorded at frequency rank #1,775, classified as anoun, pronounced \lak\. ld is at rank #33,328, tagged as asymbol.

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 35103, this pair ranks #279,164 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lac vs ld

Shared letters: l. Private to "lac": ac. Private to "ld": d.

"lac" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "ld" · 2 letters · shape CC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lac" for "ld" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lac" is a noun and "ld" a symbol, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lac" or "ld"?
"lac" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,775 in our French list, against #33,328 for "ld". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "lac" and "ld". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lac" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ld" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #279,164 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lac" and "ld" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ld vs lep". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #279,164 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