Which to use
“long” is an adjective and “look” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #150
- “long” frequency rank
- #151
- “look” frequency rank
- 301
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | long | look |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having much distance in space from one end to the other. | To try to see, to pay attention to with one’s eyes. |
Where the eye mixes long and look
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: long is /lɒŋ/ while look is /lʊk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 301, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
long is recorded at frequency rank #150, classified as anadj, pronounced /lɒŋ/. look is at rank #151, tagged as averb, pronounced /lʊk/.
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 301, this pair ranks #529,618 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of long vs look
Shared letters: lo. Private to "long": gn. Private to "look": k.
"long" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "look" · 4 letters · shape CVVC