aloftvsalotConfusable pair

Quick tell: aloft is a adverb, alot is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aloft” is an adverb and “alot” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,996
“aloft” frequency rank
#7,879
“alot” frequency rank
33875
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aloft alot
Definition At, to, or in the air or sky. Alternative form of a lot.

Letter map: aloft vs alot

Shared letters muted; letters that set aloft and alot apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

5 ch
aloft
4 ch
alot

Grammar separator: aloft vs alot

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: aloft is anadverb and alotanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33875, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aloft is recorded at frequency rank #25,996, classified as anadv, pronounced /əˈlɔft/. alot is at rank #7,879, tagged as anoun.

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 33875, this pair ranks #325,624 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of aloft vs alot

Shared letters: alot. Private to "aloft": f. Private to "alot": -.

"aloft" · 5 letters · shape VCVCC  ·  "alot" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aloftalfot · alloft · alofft · aloftt · alotf · aolft · laoft
  • alotalott · aolt · laot

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aloft" for "alot" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aloft" is an adverb and "alot" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "aloft" or "alot" show up more?
"alot" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,879 in our English list, against #25,996 for "aloft". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "aloft" vs "alot" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aloft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alot" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #325,624 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aloft" and "alot" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aloft vs Alon". 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 #325,624 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list