Which to use
“loam” and “lox” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #46,031
- “loam” frequency rank
- #44,312
- “lox” frequency rank
- 90343
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | loam | lox |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A type of soil; an earthy mixture of sand, silt and clay, with organic matter to which its fertility is chiefly due. | Salmon that is cured in brine and then smoked at a low temperature so that the flesh remains uncooked. |
Where the eye mixes loam and lox
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses loam with lox
A purely visual mix-up. loam (/ləʊm/) and lox (/lɒks/) 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 90343, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
loam is recorded at frequency rank #46,031, classified as anoun, pronounced /ləʊm/. lox is at rank #44,312, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɒks/.
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 90343, this pair ranks #4,297 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of loam vs lox
Shared letters: lo. Private to "loam": am. Private to "lox": x.
"loam" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "lox" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- loam ← laom · lloam · loamm · olam
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "loam" for "lox" ever safe?
Frequency check: "loam" vs "lox" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "loam" and "lox" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "loam" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #4,297 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "loam" and "lox" 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 #4,297 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.