Which to use
“lavages” and “laves” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,189
- “lavages” frequency rank
- #26,781
- “laves” frequency rank
- 75970
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lavages | laves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de lavage. | Pluriel de lave. |
Where the eye mixes lavages and laves
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. lavages runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against laves's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: lavages vs laves
A purely visual mix-up. lavages (\la.vaʒ\) and laves (\lav\) 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 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75970, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lavages is recorded at frequency rank #49,189, classified as anoun, pronounced \la.vaʒ\. laves is at rank #26,781, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lav\.
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 75970, this pair ranks #32,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lavages vs laves
Shared letters: aelsv. Private to "lavages": g. Private to "laves": -.
"lavages" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "laves" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lavages" and "laves" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "lavages" vs "laves" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "lavages" and "laves" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lavages" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "laves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #32,453 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lavages" and "laves" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lavages vs levage". 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 #32,453 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.