ladyvslateWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lady is a noun, late is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lady” is a noun and “late” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,418
“lady” frequency rank
#12,276
“late” frequency rank
15694
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lady late
Definition dama terceira pessoa do presente do indicativo do verbo latir

Letter map: lady vs late

Shared letters muted; letters that set lady and late apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
lady
4 ch
late

Role in the sentence - lady and late

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lady is anoun and lateaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15694, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lady is recorded at frequency rank #3,418, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈleɪdi/. late is at rank #12,276, tagged as averb.

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 15694, this pair ranks #56,060 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lady vs late

Shared letters: al. Private to "lady": dy. Private to "late": et.

"lady" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ladyaldy · laddy · ladyy · layd · lday · llady
  • latealte · laet · latte · llate · ltae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lady" and "late" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lady" is a noun and "late" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lady" vs "late" - which ranks higher?
"lady" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,418 in our Portuguese list, against #12,276 for "late". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "lady" and "late".

  • Full dictionary entry for "lady" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "late" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,060 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lady" and "late" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laca vs late". 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 #56,060 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list