Which to use
“lais” and “leaks” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,862
- “lais” frequency rank
- #44,019
- “leaks” frequency rank
- 85881
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lais | leaks |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Jeune baliveau de l’âge du bois, qu’on laisse quand on coupe le taillis, afin qu’il vienne en haute futaie. | Pluriel de leak. |
Where the eye mixes lais and leaks
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lais runs 4 letters (CVVC) against leaks's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses lais with leaks
A purely visual mix-up. lais (\lɛ\) and leaks (\ˈliks\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 85881, 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\. leaks is at rank #44,019, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈliks\.
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 85881, this pair ranks #10,598 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lais vs leaks
Shared letters: als. Private to "lais": i. Private to "leaks": ek.
"lais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "leaks" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lais" and "leaks" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "lais" vs "leaks" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "lais" and "leaks" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "leaks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #10,598 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lais" and "leaks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leaks vs levais". 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 #10,598 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.