lodevsloyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“lode” and “loy” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#41,231
“lode” frequency rank
#45,491
“loy” frequency rank
86722
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lode loy
Definition A way or path; a road. A type of one-eared spade used in Ireland.

Where the eye mixes lode and loy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lode runs 4 letters (CVCV) against loy's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
lode
3 ch
loy

Look-alike desk: lode vs loy

A purely visual mix-up. lode (/ləʊd/) and loy (/lɔɪ/) 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 86722, 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/. loy is at rank #45,491, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɔɪ/.

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 86722, this pair ranks #8,588 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lode vs loy

Shared letters: lo. Private to "lode": de. Private to "loy": y.

"lode" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "loy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lode ← ldoe · llode · lodde

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lode" and "loy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ləʊd/ versus /lɔɪ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lode" vs "loy" - which ranks higher?
"lode" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,231 in our English list, against #45,491 for "loy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "lode" and "loy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lode" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,588 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lode" and "loy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loy vs LSC". 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 #8,588 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