locovsluckWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“loco” and “luck” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#41,324
“loco” frequency rank
#26,957
“luck” frequency rank
68281
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loco luck
Definition Ort, Platz, Stelle; auch in Fachwort Glück

Letter map: loco vs luck

Shared letters muted; letters that set loco and luck apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. loco (CVCV) and luck (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
loco
4 ch
luck

Pair insight - loco / luck

loco and luck are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68281, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loco is recorded at frequency rank #41,324, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. luck is at rank #26,957, tagged as anoun, pronounced [lʌk].

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 68281, this pair ranks #512,850 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of loco vs luck

Shared letters: cl. Private to "loco": o. Private to "luck": ku.

"loco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "luck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loco ← lcoo · lloco · locco · looc · olco
  • luck ← lcuk · lluck · lucck · luckk · lukc · ulck

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "loco" for "luck" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "loco" vs "luck" - which ranks higher?
"luck" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,957 in our German list, against #41,324 for "loco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "loco" vs "luck" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "loco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luck" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #512,850 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loco" and "luck" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loco vs puzzles". 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 #512,850 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