Which to use
“laps” and “lapsus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #18,786
- “laps” frequency rank
- #29,842
- “lapsus” frequency rank
- 48628
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | laps | lapsus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Période de temps. | Erreur involontaire qui fait dire à une personne autre chose que ce qu’elle avait prévu d’exprimer. |
Where the eye mixes laps and lapsus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses laps with lapsus
A purely visual mix-up. laps (\laps\) and lapsus (\lap.sys\) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “laps” sits inside “lapsus”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48628, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
laps is recorded at frequency rank #18,786, classified as anoun, pronounced \laps\. lapsus is at rank #29,842, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lap.sys\.
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 48628, this pair ranks #177,340 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of laps vs lapsus
Shared letters: alps. Private to "laps": -. Private to "lapsus": u.
"laps" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lapsus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "laps" and "lapsus" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "laps" or "lapsus" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "laps" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lapsus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #177,340 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "laps" and "lapsus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laps vs lep". 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 #177,340 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.