ledgevslodgerWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“ledge” and “lodger” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#16,956
“ledge” frequency rank
#48,331
“lodger” frequency rank
65287
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ledge lodger
Definition A narrow surface projecting horizontally from a wall, cliff, or other surface. A person who lodges in another's house (compare tenant).

Where the eye mixes ledge and lodger

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
ledge
6 ch
lodger

Look-alike desk: ledge vs lodger

A purely visual mix-up. ledge (/lɛd͡ʒ/) and lodger (/ˈlɑd͡ʒɚ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65287, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ledge is recorded at frequency rank #16,956, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɛd͡ʒ/. lodger is at rank #48,331, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɑd͡ʒɚ/.

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 65287, this pair ranks #73,511 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ledge vs lodger

Shared letters: degl. Private to "ledge": -. Private to "lodger": or.

"ledge" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "lodger" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ledgeeldge · ldege · leddge · ledeg · ledgge · legde · lledge
  • lodgerldoger · llodger · loddger · lodegr · lodgerr · lodgger · lodgre · logder

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ledge" and "lodger" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/lɛd͡ʒ/ versus /ˈlɑd͡ʒɚ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "ledge" or "lodger" show up more?
"ledge" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,956 in our English list, against #48,331 for "lodger". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ledge" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lodger" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,511 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ledge" and "lodger" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lodger vs luger". 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 #73,511 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