Look or luck?
look is a verb meaning “As an intransitive verb, often with “at””; luck is a noun meaning “Something that happens to someone by chance, a chance occurrence”. Use look as a verb and luck as a noun (luck is also a verb: “To find something through good fortune; used with into, on…”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) look is about 7.9 times as common as luck.
What is the difference between look and luck?
| look | luck | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, interjection, noun | noun, verb |
| Meaning | As an intransitive verb, often with “at” colloquialAs a transitive verb, often in the imperative; chiefly takes relative clause as direct object Pay attention | Something that happens to someone by chance, a chance occurrence A favourable chance occurrence informalTo find something through good fortune; used with into, on, onto or upon |
| Example | They kept looking at me | The raffle is just a matter of luck |
| Forms | looks, looking, looked | lucks |
| Pronunciation | /lʊk/ [lɵk] /luːk/ | /lʌk/ [lɐk] |
| In writing | 646 times per million words | 81 times per million words |
Sources: look and luck in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of look and luck
look
- 1
As an intransitive verb, often with “at”
They kept looking at me
- 2
Pay attention
Look, I'm going to explain what to do, so you have to listen closely
- 3
The action of looking; an attempt to see
Let’s have a look under the hood of the car
- 4
colloquialAs a transitive verb, often in the imperative; chiefly takes relative clause as direct object
Look what you did to him!
- 5
Physical appearance, visual impression
She got her mother’s looks
- 6
To appear, to seem
It looks as if it’s going to rain soon. or It looks like it’s going to rain soon. or It looks like rain [is coming]
- 7
A facial expression
He gave me a dirty look
- 8
To give an appearance of being
What a fright you looked in that hideous outfit
luck
- 1
Something that happens to someone by chance, a chance occurrence
The raffle is just a matter of luck
- 2
informalTo find something through good fortune; used with into, on, onto or upon
- 3
A favourable chance occurrence
Sometimes it takes a bit of luck to get success
- 4
A superstitious feeling that brings fortune or success
He blew on the dice for luck
- 5
Success
I tried for ages to find a pair of blue suede shoes, but didn't have any luck
- 6
The results of a random number generator
The creators of tool-assisted speedruns often manipulate luck to get the most favorable results in order to save the most time
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, look or luck?
look appears 646 times per million words; luck 81 times per million words.
look 646 times per million wordsluck 81 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).