Which to use
“ladies” and “lais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #29,018
- “ladies” frequency rank
- #41,862
- “lais” frequency rank
- 70880
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | ladies | lais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de lady. | Jeune baliveau de l’âge du bois, qu’on laisse quand on coupe le taillis, afin qu’il vienne en haute futaie. |
Where the eye mixes ladies and lais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. ladies runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against lais's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: ladies vs lais
A purely visual mix-up. ladies (\le.di\) and lais (\lɛ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70880, 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\. lais is at rank #41,862, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɛ\.
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 70880, this pair ranks #49,626 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of ladies vs lais
Shared letters: ails. Private to "ladies": de. Private to "lais": -.
"ladies" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC · "lais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "ladies" and "lais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "ladies" or "lais"?
What to do next
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 "lais" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #49,626 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "ladies" and "lais" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lago vs lais". 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 #49,626 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.