lootvsloxConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#15,213
“loot” frequency rank
#44,312
“lox” frequency rank
59525
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loot lox
Definition Synonym of booty, goods seized from an enemy by violence, particularly (historical) during the sacking of a town in war or (video games) after successful combat. Salmon that is cured in brine and then smoked at a low temperature so that the flesh remains uncooked.

Where the eye mixes loot and lox

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
loot
3 ch
lox

Visual trap between loot and lox

A purely visual mix-up. loot (/luːt/) and lox (/lɒks/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59525, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loot is recorded at frequency rank #15,213, classified as anoun, pronounced /luːt/. 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 59525, this pair ranks #105,620 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of loot vs lox

Shared letters: lo. Private to "loot": t. Private to "lox": x.

"loot" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "lox" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lootlloot · loott · loto · olot

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "loot" and "lox" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/luːt/ versus /lɒks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "loot" vs "lox" - which ranks higher?
"loot" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,213 in our English list, against #44,312 for "lox". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "loot" 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 #105,620 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loot" 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 #105,620 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