lodevslopeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: lode is a noun, lope is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lode” is a noun and “lope” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,231
“lode” frequency rank
#49,466
“lope” frequency rank
90697
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lode lope
Definition A way or path; a road. To travel an easy pace with long strides.

Where the eye mixes lode and lope

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lode and lope follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
lode
4 ch
lope

Visual trap between lode and lope

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lode is /ləʊd/ while lope is /ləʊp/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “lode” becomes p in “lope”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90697, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lode is recorded at frequency rank #41,231, classified as anoun, pronounced /ləʊd/. lope is at rank #49,466, tagged as averb, pronounced /ləʊp/.

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 90697, this pair ranks #3,954 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lode vs lope

Shared letters: elo. Private to "lode": d. Private to "lope": p.

"lode" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lope" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lode ← ldoe · llode · lodde
  • lope ← llope · loep · loppe · lpoe · olpe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lode" and "lope" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lode" is a noun and "lope" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "lode" or "lope" show up more?
"lode" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,231 in our English list, against #49,466 for "lope". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lode" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lope" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,954 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lode" and "lope" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lope vs Lora". 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 #3,954 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list