Which to use
“lowery” and “lowly” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #42,753
- “lowery” frequency rank
- #20,420
- “lowly” frequency rank
- 63173
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lowery | lowly |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Dark and gloomy; threatening; lowering. | Not high; not elevated in place; low. |
Where the eye mixes lowery and lowly
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lowery vs lowly
A purely visual mix-up. lowery (/ˈlaʊəɹi/) and lowly (/ˈləʊli/) 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 63173, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lowery is recorded at frequency rank #42,753, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈlaʊəɹi/. lowly is at rank #20,420, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈləʊli/.
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 63173, this pair ranks #84,464 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lowery vs lowly
Shared letters: lowy. Private to "lowery": er. Private to "lowly": -.
"lowery" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "lowly" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lowery" and "lowly" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "lowery" or "lowly" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "lowery" and "lowly" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lowery" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lowly" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #84,464 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lowery" and "lowly" 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 #84,464 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.