lorevsloweConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#13,950
“lore” frequency rank
#13,751
“lowe” frequency rank
27701
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lore lowe
Definition All the facts and traditions about a particular subject that have been accumulated over time through education or experience. Alternative form of low ("flame").

Letter map: lore vs lowe

Shared letters muted; letters that set lore and lowe apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
lore
4 ch
lowe

Spelling & dictionary notes on lore vs lowe

lore and lowe are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - r in “lore” becomes w in “lowe”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27701, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lore is recorded at frequency rank #13,950, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɔː/. lowe is at rank #13,751, tagged as anoun.

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 27701, this pair ranks #376,815 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lore vs lowe

Shared letters: elo. Private to "lore": r. Private to "lowe": w.

"lore" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lowe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lorellore · loer · lorre · lroe · olre
  • lowellowe · lowwe · lwoe · olwe

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lore" and "lowe" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by a single letter - r in “lore” becomes w in “lowe”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "lore" or "lowe"?
"lowe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,751 in our English list, against #13,950 for "lore". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "lore" and "lowe". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lore" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lowe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #376,815 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lore" and "lowe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lope vs lore". 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 #376,815 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