Which to use
“lamb” is a noun and “lay” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #39,367
- “lamb” frequency rank
- #27,500
- “lay” frequency rank
- 66867
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lamb | lay |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Agneau. | Variante de lé. |
Letter map: lamb vs lay
Shared letters muted; letters that set lamb and lay apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Grammar separator: lamb vs lay
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lamb is anoun and layanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66867, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lamb is recorded at frequency rank #39,367, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈlæm\. lay is at rank #27,500, tagged as anadj.
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 66867, this pair ranks #65,940 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lamb vs lay
Shared letters: al. Private to "lamb": bm. Private to "lay": y.
"lamb" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lay" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- lamb ← almb · labm · lambb · lammb · llamb · lmab
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lamb" and "lay" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "lamb" vs "lay" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lamb" and "lay".
- Full dictionary entry for "lamb" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lay" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #65,940 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lamb" and "lay" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lago vs lamb". 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 #65,940 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.