leivsLukConfusable pair

Quick tell: lei is a noun, Luk is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lei” is a noun and “Luk” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#23,328
“lei” frequency rank
#45,495
“Luk” frequency rank
68823
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lei Luk
Definition A garland of flowers in Hawaii. A surname.

Letter map: lei vs Luk

Shared letters muted; letters that set lei and Luk apart highlighted. Shared run: 1.

3 ch
lei
3 ch
Luk

Role in the sentence - lei and Luk

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lei is anoun and Lukaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68823, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lei is recorded at frequency rank #23,328, classified as anoun, pronounced /leɪ/. Luk is at rank #45,495, tagged as aname.

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 68823, this pair ranks #57,176 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lei vs Luk

Shared letters: l. Private to "lei": ei. Private to "Luk": ku.

"lei" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "Luk" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lei" for "Luk" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lei" is a noun and "Luk" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "lei" or "Luk" show up more?
"lei" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,328 in our English list, against #45,495 for "Luk". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "lei" vs "Luk" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lei" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Luk" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #57,176 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lei" and "Luk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "LSC vs Luk". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #57,176 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