LATvsloathTell them apart

Quick tell: LAT is a noun, loath is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“LAT” is a noun and “loath” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,494
“LAT” frequency rank
#43,241
“loath” frequency rank
67735
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature LAT loath
Definition Initialism of lowest astronomical tide. Averse, disinclined; reluctant, unwilling. Always followed by a verbal phrase.

Letter map: LAT vs loath

Shared letters muted; letters that set LAT and loath apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. LAT runs 3 letters (CVC) against loath's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
LAT
5 ch
loath

Part-of-speech tell for LAT / loath

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: LAT is anoun and loathanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67735, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

LAT is recorded at frequency rank #24,494, classified as anoun. loath is at rank #43,241, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ləʊθ/.

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 67735, this pair ranks #61,997 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of LAT vs loath

Shared letters: alt. Private to "LAT": -. Private to "loath": ho.

"LAT" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "loath" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loath ← laoth · lloath · loaht · loathh · loatth · lotah · olath

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "LAT" for "loath" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "LAT" is a noun and "loath" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "LAT" or "loath" show up more?
"LAT" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,494 in our English list, against #43,241 for "loath". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "LAT" vs "loath" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "LAT" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loath" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,997 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "LAT" and "loath" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loath vs LSAT". 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 #61,997 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