laidesvslainesTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#42,427
“laides” frequency rank
#41,376
“laines” frequency rank
83803
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laides laines
Definition Féminin pluriel de laid. Pluriel de laine.

Where the eye mixes laides and laines

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
laides
6 ch
laines

Why the eye confuses laides with laines

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: laides is \lɛd\ while laines is \lɛn\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “laides” becomes n in “laines”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83803, 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\. laines is at rank #41,376, 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 83803, this pair ranks #14,137 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laides vs laines

Shared letters: aeils. Private to "laides": d. Private to "laines": n.

"laides" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "laines" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laidesalides · laiddes · laidess · laidse · laieds · liades · llaides
  • laineslainess · lainnes · lainse · lanies · llaines

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "laides" and "laines" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "laides" is an adjective and "laines" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "laides" or "laines"?
"laines" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,376 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.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "laides" and "laines" 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 "laines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,137 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laides" and "laines" 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 #14,137 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