Which to use
“loud” and “low” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,841
- “loud” frequency rank
- #468
- “low” frequency rank
- 3309
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | loud | low |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Of great intensity. | Situated close to, or even below, the ground or another normal reference plane; not high or lofty. |
Where the eye mixes loud and low
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. loud (/laʊd/) and low (/ˈləʊ/) 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 3309, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
loud is recorded at frequency rank #2,841, classified as anadj, pronounced /laʊd/. low is at rank #468, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈləʊ/.
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 3309, this pair ranks #522,485 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of loud vs low
Shared letters: lo. Private to "loud": du. Private to "low": w.
"loud" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "low" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- loud ← lloud · lodu · loudd · luod · olud