loxvsluxeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“lox” and “luxe” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#44,312
“lox” frequency rank
#29,359
“luxe” frequency rank
73671
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lox luxe
Definition Salmon that is cured in brine and then smoked at a low temperature so that the flesh remains uncooked. Luxury.

Where the eye mixes lox and luxe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lox runs 3 letters (CVC) against luxe's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
lox
4 ch
luxe

Why the eye confuses lox with luxe

A purely visual mix-up. lox (/lɒks/) and luxe (/luks/) 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 73671, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lox is recorded at frequency rank #44,312, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɒks/. luxe is at rank #29,359, tagged as anoun, pronounced /luks/.

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 73671, this pair ranks #38,823 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lox vs luxe

Shared letters: lx. Private to "lox": o. Private to "luxe": eu.

"lox" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "luxe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • luxe ← lluxe · luex · luxxe · lxue · ulxe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lox" and "luxe" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/lɒks/ versus /luks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "lox" or "luxe" show up more?
"luxe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,359 in our English list, against #44,312 for "lox". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "lox" and "luxe" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lox" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luxe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,823 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lox" and "luxe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lox vs LSC". 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 #38,823 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