luckvsLückenWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,957
“luck” frequency rank
#8,908
“Lücken” frequency rank
35865
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature luck Lücken
Definition Glück Nominativ Plural des Substantivs Lücke

Where the eye mixes luck and Lücken

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
luck
6 ch
Lücken

Visual trap between luck and Lücken

A purely visual mix-up. luck ([lʌk]) and Lücken ([ˈlʏkn̩]) 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 35865, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

luck is recorded at frequency rank #26,957, classified as anoun, pronounced [lʌk]. Lücken is at rank #8,908, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlʏkn̩].

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 35865, this pair ranks #1,629,656 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of luck vs Lücken

Shared letters: ckl. Private to "luck": u. Private to "Lücken": enü.

"luck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "Lücken" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lucklcuk · lluck · lucck · luckk · lukc · ulck

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "luck" and "Lücken" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([lʌk] versus [ˈlʏkn̩]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "luck" or "Lücken"?
"Lücken" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,908 in our German list, against #26,957 for "luck". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "luck" and "Lücken" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "luck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Lücken" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,629,656 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "luck" and "Lücken" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "luck vs Luckau". 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 #1,629,656 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