Which to use
“Locke” is a name and “lockup” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #14,355
- “Locke” frequency rank
- #49,465
- “lockup” frequency rank
- 63820
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Locke | lockup |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | An English surname — famously held by | A jail cell; a period of incarceration in such a cell; a facility containing such cells. |
Letter map: Locke vs lockup
Shared letters muted; letters that set Locke and lockup apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. Locke runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against lockup's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Part-of-speech tell for Locke / lockup
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Locke is aname and lockupanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63820, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Locke is recorded at frequency rank #14,355, classified as aname, pronounced /lɒk/. lockup is at rank #49,465, tagged as anoun.
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 63820, this pair ranks #80,907 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Locke vs lockup
Shared letters: cklo. Private to "Locke": e. Private to "lockup": pu.
"Locke" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "lockup" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Locke" for "lockup" ever safe?
Frequency check: "Locke" vs "lockup" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Locke" and "lockup".
- Full dictionary entry for "Locke" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lockup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #80,907 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Locke" and "lockup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lockup vs locum". 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 #80,907 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.