luckvsluluWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,312
“luck” frequency rank
#18,876
“lulu” frequency rank
20188
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature luck lulu
Definition Something that happens to someone by chance, a chance occurrence. A remarkable person, object, or idea.

Where the eye mixes luck and lulu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
luck
4 ch
lulu

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. luck (/lʌk/) and lulu (/ˈluːlu/) 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 20188, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

luck is recorded at frequency rank #1,312, classified as anoun, pronounced /lʌk/. lulu is at rank #18,876, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈluːlu/.

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 20188, this pair ranks #432,903 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of luck vs lulu

Shared letters: lu. Private to "luck": ck. Private to "lulu": -.

"luck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "lulu" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lucklcuk · lluck · lucck · luckk · lukc · ulck
  • lulullulu · lluu · lullu · luul · ullu

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "luck" and "lulu" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/lʌk/ versus /ˈluːlu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "luck" or "lulu"?
"luck" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,312 in our English list, against #18,876 for "lulu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list