Which to use
“lady” and “law” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,576
- “lady” frequency rank
- #12,186
- “law” frequency rank
- 17762
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lady | law |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Titre qui appartient en Angleterre à l’épouse d’un lord ou d’un chevalier, et que l’on donne aussi, par courtoisie, aux filles des lords en y joignant les noms de baptême. | Loi, règle. |
Where the eye mixes lady and law
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between lady and law
A purely visual mix-up. lady (\le.di\) and law (\lɔ\) 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 17762, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lady is recorded at frequency rank #5,576, classified as anoun, pronounced \le.di\. law is at rank #12,186, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɔ\.
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 17762, this pair ranks #381,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lady vs law
Shared letters: al. Private to "lady": dy. Private to "law": w.
"lady" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "law" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- lady ← aldy · laddy · ladyy · layd · lday · llady
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lady" for "law" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lady" vs "law" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "lady" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "law" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #381,595 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lady" and "law" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "law vs lep". 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 #381,595 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.