Which to use
“lais” and “laps” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,862
- “lais” frequency rank
- #18,786
- “laps” frequency rank
- 60648
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lais | laps |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Jeune baliveau de l’âge du bois, qu’on laisse quand on coupe le taillis, afin qu’il vienne en haute futaie. | Période de temps. |
Where the eye mixes lais and laps
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between lais and laps
A purely visual mix-up. lais (\lɛ\) and laps (\laps\) 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 a single letter - i in “lais” becomes p in “laps”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60648, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lais is recorded at frequency rank #41,862, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɛ\. laps is at rank #18,786, tagged as anoun, pronounced \laps\.
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 60648, this pair ranks #96,539 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lais vs laps
Shared letters: als. Private to "lais": i. Private to "laps": p.
"lais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "laps" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lais" and "laps" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "lais" or "laps" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "lais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "laps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #96,539 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lais" and "laps" 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 #96,539 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.