losvslynWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,728
“los” frequency rank
#25,833
“lyn” frequency rank
27561
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature los lyn
Definition A medium-sized wildcat, most of them part of the genus Lynx. Alternative form of linn (“waterfall”).

Where the eye mixes los and lyn

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
los
3 ch
lyn

Look-alike desk: los vs lyn

A purely visual mix-up. los (/lɒs/) and lyn (/lɪn/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27561, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

los is recorded at frequency rank #1,728, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɒs/. lyn is at rank #25,833, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɪn/.

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 27561, this pair ranks #377,948 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of los vs lyn

Shared letters: l. Private to "los": os. Private to "lyn": ny.

"los" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lyn" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "los" and "lyn" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/lɒs/ versus /lɪn/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "los" or "lyn" show up more?
"los" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,728 in our English list, against #25,833 for "lyn". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "los" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lyn" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #377,948 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "los" and "lyn" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "LSC vs lyn". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #377,948 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