locationvslotionWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“location” and “lotion” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,461
“location” frequency rank
#16,066
“lotion” frequency rank
17527
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature location lotion
Definition A particular point or place in physical space. A low- to medium-viscosity topical preparation intended for application to unbroken skin.

Where the eye mixes location and lotion

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
location
6 ch
lotion

Look-alike desk: location vs lotion

A purely visual mix-up. location (/ləʊˈkeɪʃən/) and lotion (/ˈloʊʃən/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17527, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

location is recorded at frequency rank #1,461, classified as anoun, pronounced /ləʊˈkeɪʃən/. lotion is at rank #16,066, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈloʊʃən/.

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 17527, this pair ranks #450,868 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of location vs lotion

Shared letters: ilnot. Private to "location": ac. Private to "lotion": -.

"location" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "lotion" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • locationlcoation · llocation · loaction · locaiton · locasion · locatino · locationn · locatoin
  • lotionllotion · loiton · losion · lotino · lotionn · lotoin · lottion · ltoion

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "location" and "lotion" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ləʊˈkeɪʃən/ versus /ˈloʊʃən/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "location" or "lotion" show up more?
"location" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,461 in our English list, against #16,066 for "lotion". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "location" and "lotion" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "location" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lotion" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #450,868 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "location" and "lotion" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lotion vs Lytton". 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 #450,868 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