Which to use
“love” and “lute” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #147
- “love” frequency rank
- #34,168
- “lute” frequency rank
- 34315
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | love | lute |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A deep caring for the existence of another. | A fretted stringed instrument, similar to the guitar, having a bowl-shaped body or soundbox; any of a wide variety of chordophones with a pear-shaped body and a neck whose upper surface is in the same plane as the soundboard, with strings along the neck and parallel to the soundboard. |
Where the eye mixes love and lute
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses love with lute
A purely visual mix-up. love (/lʌv/) and lute (/l(j)uːt/) 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 34315, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
love is recorded at frequency rank #147, classified as anoun, pronounced /lʌv/. lute is at rank #34,168, tagged as anoun, pronounced /l(j)uːt/.
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 34315, this pair ranks #321,867 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of love vs lute
Shared letters: el. Private to "love": ov. Private to "lute": tu.
"love" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lute" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "love" and "lute" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "love" or "lute"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "love" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lute" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #321,867 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "love" and "lute" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lope vs lute". 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 #321,867 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.