lordvsloxTell them apart

Which to use

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

#832
“lord” frequency rank
#44,312
“lox” frequency rank
45144
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lord lox
Definition The master of the servants of a household; (historical) the master of a feudal manor Salmon that is cured in brine and then smoked at a low temperature so that the flesh remains uncooked.

Where the eye mixes lord and lox

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

4 ch
lord
3 ch
lox

Look-alike desk: lord vs lox

A purely visual mix-up. lord (/lɔːd/) 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 45144, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lord is recorded at frequency rank #832, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɔːd/. 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 45144, this pair ranks #224,012 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lord vs lox

Shared letters: lo. Private to "lord": dr. Private to "lox": x.

"lord" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "lox" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lordllord · lodr · lordd · lorrd · lrod · olrd

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lord" for "lox" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/lɔːd/ versus /lɒks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lord" or "lox"?
"lord" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #832 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.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "lord" and "lox" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lord" 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 #224,012 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lord" 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 #224,012 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