Which to use
“lost” is a verb and “lots” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #400
- “lost” frequency rank
- #1,399
- “lots” frequency rank
- 1799
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lost | lots |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of lose | plural of lot |
Where the eye mixes lost and lots
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lost is /lɒst/ while lots is /lɑts/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (st ↔ ts) - a transposition the eye reads straight past, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1799, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lost is recorded at frequency rank #400, classified as averb, pronounced /lɒst/. lots is at rank #1,399, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɑts/.
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 1799, this pair ranks #526,630 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lost vs lots
Shared letters: lost. Private to "lost": -. Private to "lots": -.
"lost" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lots" · 4 letters · shape CVCC