Which to use
“load” and “loam” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,587
- “load” frequency rank
- #46,031
- “loam” frequency rank
- 48618
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | load | loam |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A burden; a weight to be carried. | A type of soil; an earthy mixture of sand, silt and clay, with organic matter to which its fertility is chiefly due. |
Where the eye mixes load and loam
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses load with loam
A purely visual mix-up. load (/loʊd/) and loam (/ləʊm/) 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 a single letter - d in “load” becomes m in “loam”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48618, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
load is recorded at frequency rank #2,587, classified as anoun, pronounced /loʊd/. loam is at rank #46,031, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ləʊm/.
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 48618, this pair ranks #191,344 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of load vs loam
Shared letters: alo. Private to "load": d. Private to "loam": m.
"load" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "loam" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "load" and "loam" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "load" vs "loam" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "load" and "loam" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "load" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "loam" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #191,344 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "load" and "loam" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loam vs lope". 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 #191,344 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.