LEMvsLukTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#35,810
“LEM” frequency rank
#45,495
“Luk” frequency rank
81305
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature LEM Luk
Definition Originally Lunar Excursion Module, latterly Lunar Module. A surname.

Letter map: LEM vs Luk

Shared letters muted; letters that set LEM and Luk apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. LEM and Luk follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

3 ch
LEM
3 ch
Luk

Part-of-speech tell for LEM / Luk

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: LEM 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 81305, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

LEM is recorded at frequency rank #35,810, classified as anoun. 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 81305, this pair ranks #17,941 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of LEM vs Luk

Shared letters: l. Private to "LEM": em. Private to "Luk": ku.

"LEM" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "Luk" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "LEM" for "Luk" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "LEM" is a noun and "Luk" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "LEM" or "Luk"?
"LEM" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,810 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 "LEM" vs "Luk" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "LEM" 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 #17,941 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "LEM" and "Luk" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "LSC vs Luk". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #17,941 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