lowevsloweryWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lowe is a noun, lowery is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lowe” is a noun and “lowery” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,751
“lowe” frequency rank
#42,753
“lowery” frequency rank
56504
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lowe lowery
Definition Alternative form of low ("flame"). Dark and gloomy; threatening; lowering.

Letter map: lowe vs lowery

Shared letters muted; letters that set lowe and lowery apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

4 ch
lowe
6 ch
lowery

Grammar separator: lowe vs lowery

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lowe is anoun and loweryanadjective. On the page they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “lowe” sits inside “lowery”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lowe is recorded at frequency rank #13,751, classified as anoun. lowery is at rank #42,753, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈlaʊəɹi/.

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 56504, this pair ranks #125,804 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lowe vs lowery

Shared letters: elow. Private to "lowe": -. Private to "lowery": ry.

"lowe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lowery" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lowellowe · lowwe · lwoe · olwe
  • loweryllowery · loewry · lowerry · loweryy · loweyr · lowrey · lowwery · lwoery

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lowe" for "lowery" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lowe" is a noun and "lowery" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lowe" vs "lowery" - which ranks higher?
"lowe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,751 in our English list, against #42,753 for "lowery". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "lowe" and "lowery". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lowe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lowery" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #125,804 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lowe" and "lowery" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leery vs lowery". 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 #125,804 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