lacetvslacsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#29,015
“lacet” frequency rank
#7,985
“lacs” frequency rank
37000
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lacet lacs
Definition Nœud coulant avec lequel on prend les perdrix, les lièvres, etc. Cordon délié.

Where the eye mixes lacet and lacs

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

5 ch
lacet
4 ch
lacs

Visual trap between lacet and lacs

A purely visual mix-up. lacet (\la.sɛ\) and lacs (\la\) 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 37000, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lacet is recorded at frequency rank #29,015, classified as anoun, pronounced \la.sɛ\. lacs is at rank #7,985, tagged as anoun, pronounced \la\.

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 37000, this pair ranks #265,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lacet vs lacs

Shared letters: acl. Private to "lacet": et. Private to "lacs": s.

"lacet" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "lacs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lacetalcet · laccet · lacett · lacte · laect · lcaet · llacet
  • lacsalcs · laccs · lacss · lasc · lcas · llacs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lacet" and "lacs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\la.sɛ\ versus \la\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "lacet" or "lacs" show up more?
"lacs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,985 in our French list, against #29,015 for "lacet". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lacet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lacs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #265,596 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lacet" and "lacs" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lacet vs lancet". 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 #265,596 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