Which to use
“look” is a verb and “lox” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #151
- “look” frequency rank
- #44,312
- “lox” frequency rank
- 44463
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | look | lox |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To try to see, to pay attention to with one’s eyes. | Salmon that is cured in brine and then smoked at a low temperature so that the flesh remains uncooked. |
Where the eye mixes look and lox
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. look runs 4 letters (CVVC) against lox's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: look vs lox
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: look is /lʊk/ while lox is /lɒks/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44463, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
look is recorded at frequency rank #151, classified as averb, pronounced /lʊk/. 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 44463, this pair ranks #230,316 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of look vs lox
Shared letters: lo. Private to "look": k. Private to "lox": x.
"look" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "lox" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- look ← llook · lok · loko · lookk · olok
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "look" and "lox" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "look" vs "lox" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "look" and "lox" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "look" 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 #230,316 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "look" 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 #230,316 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.