look vs lox, What's the Difference?

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 spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set look and lox apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

look

3 ch

lox

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

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

Frequency comparison

look#151

lox#44,312

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "look" and "lox" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "look" is a verb and "lox" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "look" or "lox"?

"look" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #151 in our English list, against #44,312 for "lox". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering look vs lox

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “look”; for a noun, it's “lox”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “look” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable