Which to use
“laines” and “lais” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,376
- “laines” frequency rank
- #41,862
- “lais” frequency rank
- 83238
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | laines | lais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de laine. | 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 laines and lais
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses laines with lais
A purely visual mix-up. laines (\lɛn\) 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 83238, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
laines is recorded at frequency rank #41,376, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɛn\. 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 83238, this pair ranks #15,203 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of laines vs lais
Shared letters: ails. Private to "laines": en. Private to "lais": -.
"laines" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "lais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "laines" for "lais" ever safe?
Frequency check: "laines" vs "lais" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "laines" 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 #15,203 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "laines" 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 #15,203 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.