Which to use
“loch” and “loy” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,064
- “loch” frequency rank
- #45,491
- “loy” frequency rank
- 61555
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | loch | loy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A lake. | A type of one-eared spade used in Ireland. |
Where the eye mixes loch and loy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. loch (/lɔx/) and loy (/lɔɪ/) 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 61555, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
loch is recorded at frequency rank #16,064, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɔx/. loy is at rank #45,491, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɔɪ/.
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 61555, this pair ranks #93,579 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of loch vs loy
Shared letters: lo. Private to "loch": ch. Private to "loy": y.
"loch" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "loy" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- loch ← lcoh · lloch · locch · lochh · lohc · olch