Which to use
“lorry” is a noun and “lousy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #22,143
- “lorry” frequency rank
- #19,383
- “lousy” frequency rank
- 41526
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lorry | lousy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A large and heavy motor vehicle designed to carry goods or soldiers; a truck | Remarkably bad; of poor quality. |
Where the eye mixes lorry and lousy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lorry (CVCCV) and lousy (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses lorry with lousy
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lorry is /ˈlɒɹi/ while lousy is /ˈlaʊ.zi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41526, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lorry is recorded at frequency rank #22,143, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɒɹi/. lousy is at rank #19,383, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈlaʊ.zi/.
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 41526, this pair ranks #257,557 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lorry vs lousy
Shared letters: loy. Private to "lorry": r. Private to "lousy": su.
"lorry" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "lousy" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lorry" for "lousy" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lorry" vs "lousy" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "lorry" and "lousy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lorry" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lousy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #257,557 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lorry" and "lousy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lora vs lorry". 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 #257,557 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.