Which to use
“locks” and “luck” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,810
- “locks” frequency rank
- #1,312
- “luck” frequency rank
- 9122
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | locks | luck |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of lock | Something that happens to someone by chance, a chance occurrence. |
Where the eye mixes locks and luck
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses locks with luck
A purely visual mix-up. locks (/lɒks/) and luck (/lʌk/) 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 9122, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
locks is recorded at frequency rank #7,810, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɒks/. luck is at rank #1,312, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lʌk/.
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 9122, this pair ranks #498,977 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of locks vs luck
Shared letters: ckl. Private to "locks": os. Private to "luck": u.
"locks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "luck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "locks" for "luck" ever safe?
Which is more common, "locks" or "luck"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "locks" and "luck" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "locks" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "luck" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #498,977 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "locks" and "luck" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "locks vs lockup". 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 #498,977 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.