Which to use
“Lair” is a name and “lais” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,923
- “Lair” frequency rank
- #41,862
- “lais” frequency rank
- 78785
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Lair | lais |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom de famille. | Jeune baliveau de l’âge du bois, qu’on laisse quand on coupe le taillis, afin qu’il vienne en haute futaie. |
Letter map: Lair vs lais
Shared letters muted; letters that set Lair and lais apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Lair and lais follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Grammar separator: Lair vs lais
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Lair is aname and laisanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - r in “Lair” becomes s in “lais”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78785, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Lair is recorded at frequency rank #36,923, classified as aname. 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 78785, this pair ranks #24,877 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Lair vs lais
Shared letters: ail. Private to "Lair": r. Private to "lais": s.
"Lair" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "lais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Lair" and "lais" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "Lair" or "lais" show up more?
What to do next
Pair "Lair" vs "lais" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "Lair" 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 #24,877 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Lair" 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 #24,877 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.