LKAvsLosConfusable pair

Quick tell: LKA is a abbrev, Los is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“LKA” is an abbrev and “Los” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#20,991
“LKA” frequency rank
#469
“Los” frequency rank
21460
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature LKA Los
Definition Landeskriminalamt Schicksal, unbeeinflussbares Geschick

Where the eye mixes LKA and Los

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
LKA
3 ch
Los

Visual trap between LKA and Los

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: LKA is [ɛlkaˈʔaː] while Los is [loːs]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (abbrev vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21460, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

LKA is recorded at frequency rank #20,991, classified as anabbrev, pronounced [ɛlkaˈʔaː]. Los is at rank #469, tagged as anoun, pronounced [loːs].

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 21460, this pair ranks #1,886,004 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of LKA vs Los

Shared letters: l. Private to "LKA": ak. Private to "Los": os.

"LKA" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "Los" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "LKA" for "Los" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "LKA" is an abbrev and "Los" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "LKA" vs "Los" - which ranks higher?
"Los" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #469 in our German list, against #20,991 for "LKA". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "LKA" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Los" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,886,004 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "LKA" and "Los" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lai vs LKA". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,886,004 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list