Which to use
“letter” and “lottery” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,196
- “letter” frequency rank
- #7,154
- “lottery” frequency rank
- 8350
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | letter | lottery |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A symbol in an alphabet. | A scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance, especially a gaming scheme in which one or more tickets bearing particular numbers draw prizes, the other tickets are blanks. |
Where the eye mixes letter and lottery
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. letter runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against lottery's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: letter vs lottery
A purely visual mix-up. letter (/ˈlɛtə/) and lottery (/ˈlɒtəɹi/) 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 8350, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
letter is recorded at frequency rank #1,196, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɛtə/. lottery is at rank #7,154, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɒtəɹi/.
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 8350, this pair ranks #502,939 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of letter vs lottery
Shared letters: elrt. Private to "letter": -. Private to "lottery": oy.
"letter" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "lottery" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "letter" for "lottery" ever safe?
Which is more common, "letter" or "lottery"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "letter" and "lottery" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "letter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lottery" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #502,939 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "letter" and "lottery" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lottery vs lowery". 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 #502,939 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.