Which to use
“ladies” is a noun and “laides” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #29,018
- “ladies” frequency rank
- #42,427
- “laides” frequency rank
- 71445
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ladies | laides |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de lady. | Féminin pluriel de laid. |
Where the eye mixes ladies and laides
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. ladies (CVCVVC) and laides (CVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses ladies with laides
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ladies is \le.di\ while laides is \lɛd\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (di ↔ id) - a transposition the eye reads straight past, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71445, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
ladies is recorded at frequency rank #29,018, classified as anoun, pronounced \le.di\. laides is at rank #42,427, tagged as anadj, pronounced \lɛd\.
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 71445, this pair ranks #47,522 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ladies vs laides
Shared letters: adeils. Private to "ladies": -. Private to "laides": -.
"ladies" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "laides" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "ladies" for "laides" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "ladies" or "laides" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "ladies" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "laides" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #47,522 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ladies" and "laides" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laides vs limes". 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 #47,522 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.