laidesvslaineConfusable pair

Quick tell: laides is a adjective, laine is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“laides” is an adjective and “laine” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,427
“laides” frequency rank
#6,711
“laine” frequency rank
49138
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laides laine
Definition Féminin pluriel de laid. Poil long, assez fin et doux, qui croît sur la peau des moutons et de quelques autres mammifères herbivores comme les lapins angora, les chèvres mohair ou cachemire et les lamas.

Where the eye mixes laides and laine

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. laides runs 6 letters (CVVCVC) against laine's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
laides
5 ch
laine

Visual trap between laides and laine

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: laides is \lɛd\ while laine is \lɛn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49138, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laides is recorded at frequency rank #42,427, classified as anadj, pronounced \lɛd\. laine is at rank #6,711, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɛn\.

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 49138, this pair ranks #173,153 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of laides vs laine

Shared letters: aeil. Private to "laides": ds. Private to "laine": n.

"laides" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "laine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laides ← alides · laiddes · laidess · laidse · laieds · liades · llaides
  • laine ← laien · lainne · lanie · llaine

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "laides" and "laine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "laides" is an adjective and "laine" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "laides" vs "laine" - which ranks higher?
"laine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,711 in our French list, against #42,427 for "laides". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "laides" and "laine" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "laides" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "laine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #173,153 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laides" and "laine" 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 #173,153 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