lap vs lips, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“lap” is a pronoun and “lips” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,890
“lap” frequency rank: #46,867
“lips” frequency rank: 84757
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	lap	lips
Definition	Rien.	Pluriel de lip.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set lap and lips apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

lap

4 ch

lips

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lap is \lap\ while lips is \ˈlɪps\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 84757, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lap is recorded at frequency rank #37,890, classified as apron, pronounced \lap\. lips is at rank #46,867, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈlɪps\.

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 84757, this pair ranks #12,420 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lap vs lips

Shared letters: lp. Private to "lap": a. Private to "lips": is.

"lap" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "lips" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

lips ← ilps · lipps · lipss · lisp · llips

Frequency comparison

lap#37,890

lips#46,867

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lap" and "lips" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lap" is a pronoun and "lips" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "lap" or "lips"?

"lap" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,890 in our French list, against #46,867 for "lips". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering lap vs lips

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a pronoun, it's “lap”; for a noun, it's “lips”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “lap” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable