Which to use
“loft” and “lox” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,786
- “loft” frequency rank
- #44,312
- “lox” frequency rank
- 59098
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | loft | lox |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Air, the air; the sky, the heavens. | Salmon that is cured in brine and then smoked at a low temperature so that the flesh remains uncooked. |
Where the eye mixes loft and lox
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses loft with lox
A purely visual mix-up. loft (/lɒft/) and lox (/lɒks/) 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 59098, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
loft is recorded at frequency rank #14,786, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɒft/. lox is at rank #44,312, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɒks/.
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 59098, this pair ranks #108,336 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of loft vs lox
Shared letters: lo. Private to "loft": ft. Private to "lox": x.
"loft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lox" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- loft ← lfot · lloft · lofft · loftt · lotf · olft
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "loft" for "lox" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "loft" or "lox" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "loft" and "lox" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "loft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #108,336 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "loft" and "lox" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lox 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 #108,336 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.