lodevslovedWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#41,231
“lode” frequency rank
#1,088
“loved” frequency rank
42319
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lode loved
Definition A way or path; a road. simple past and past participle of love

Where the eye mixes lode and loved

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lode runs 4 letters (CVCV) against loved's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
lode
5 ch
loved

Visual trap between lode and loved

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lode is /ləʊd/ while loved is /lʌvd/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42319, 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/. loved is at rank #1,088, tagged as averb, pronounced /lʌvd/.

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 42319, this pair ranks #250,328 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lode vs loved

Shared letters: delo. Private to "lode": -. Private to "loved": v.

"lode" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "loved" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lode ← ldoe · llode · lodde
  • loved ← lloved · loevd · lovde · lovedd · lovved · lvoed · olved

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lode" and "loved" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lode" is a noun and "loved" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lode" or "loved"?
"loved" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,088 in our English list, against #41,231 for "lode". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lode" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loved" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #250,328 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lode" and "loved" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lode vs lope". 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 #250,328 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