Which to use
“lord” and “los” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #832
- “lord” frequency rank
- #1,728
- “los” frequency rank
- 2560
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lord | los |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The master of the servants of a household; (historical) the master of a feudal manor | A medium-sized wildcat, most of them part of the genus Lynx. |
Where the eye mixes lord and los
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses lord with los
A purely visual mix-up. lord (/lɔːd/) and los (/lɒs/) 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 2560, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lord is recorded at frequency rank #832, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɔːd/. los is at rank #1,728, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɒs/.
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 2560, this pair ranks #524,660 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lord vs los
Shared letters: lo. Private to "lord": dr. Private to "los": s.
"lord" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "los" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- lord ← llord · lodr · lordd · lorrd · lrod · olrd
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lord" and "los" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "lord" or "los" show up more?
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 "lord" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "los" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #524,660 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lord" and "los" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "los 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 #524,660 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.