lomavslyraWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#34,575
“loma” frequency rank
#34,971
“lyra” frequency rank
69546
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loma lyra
Definition A lobe, flap or fringe bordering the toe of a bird. The middle portion of the ventral surface of the fornix of the brain.

Letter map: loma vs lyra

Shared letters muted; letters that set loma and lyra apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. loma and lyra follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
loma
4 ch
lyra

Corpus notes: loma and lyra

loma and lyra are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69546, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loma is recorded at frequency rank #34,575, classified as anoun. lyra is at rank #34,971, tagged as anoun.

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 69546, this pair ranks #54,103 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of loma vs lyra

Shared letters: al. Private to "loma": mo. Private to "lyra": ry.

"loma" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lyra" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loma ← lloma · lomma · olma
  • lyra ← llyra · lrya · lyar · lyrra · lyyra · ylra

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "loma" for "lyra" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "loma" vs "lyra" - which ranks higher?
"loma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,575 in our English list, against #34,971 for "lyra". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "loma" vs "lyra" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "loma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lyra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,103 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loma" and "lyra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loma 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 #54,103 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