Which to use
“locust” is a noun and “lowest” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #28,979
- “locust” frequency rank
- #3,569
- “lowest” frequency rank
- 32548
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | locust | lowest |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Any of the grasshoppers, often polyphenic and usually swarming, in the family Acrididae that are very destructive to crops and other vegetation, especially migratory locusts (Locusta migratoria). | superlative form of low: most low |
Where the eye mixes locust and lowest
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. locust and lowest follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between locust and lowest
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: locust is /ˈləʊ.kəst/ while lowest is /ˈləʊ.ɪst/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32548, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
locust is recorded at frequency rank #28,979, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈləʊ.kəst/. lowest is at rank #3,569, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈləʊ.ɪst/.
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 32548, this pair ranks #336,855 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of locust vs lowest
Shared letters: lost. Private to "locust": cu. Private to "lowest": ew.
"locust" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "lowest" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "locust" and "lowest" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "locust" vs "lowest" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "locust" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lowest" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #336,855 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "locust" and "lowest" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "locum vs locust". 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 #336,855 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.