locovslolWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: loco is a adverb, lol is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“loco” is an adverb and “lol” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,141
“loco” frequency rank
#948
“lol” frequency rank
23089
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loco lol
Definition A direction in written or printed music to be returning to the proper pitch after having played an octave higher or lower. Alternative form of LOL.

Where the eye mixes loco and lol

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
loco
3 ch
lol

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: loco is /ˈləʊ.kəʊ/ while lol is /ɛl.əʊˈɛl/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23089, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loco is recorded at frequency rank #22,141, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈləʊ.kəʊ/. lol is at rank #948, tagged as anintj, pronounced /ɛl.əʊˈɛl/.

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 23089, this pair ranks #411,817 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of loco vs lol

Shared letters: lo. Private to "loco": c. Private to "lol": -.

"loco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lol" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • locolcoo · lloco · locco · looc · olco

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "loco" and "lol" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "loco" is an adverb and "lol" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "loco" or "lol"?
"lol" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #948 in our English list, against #22,141 for "loco". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list