Which to use
“luck” and “lurch” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,312
- “luck” frequency rank
- #37,551
- “lurch” frequency rank
- 38863
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | luck | lurch |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Something that happens to someone by chance, a chance occurrence. | A sudden or unsteady movement. |
Where the eye mixes luck and lurch
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: luck vs lurch
A purely visual mix-up. luck (/lʌk/) and lurch (/lɜːt͡ʃ/) 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 38863, 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/. lurch is at rank #37,551, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɜːt͡ʃ/.
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 38863, this pair ranks #282,015 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of luck vs lurch
Shared letters: clu. Private to "luck": k. Private to "lurch": hr.
"luck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lurch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "luck" and "lurch" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "luck" or "lurch" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "luck" and "lurch" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "luck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lurch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #282,015 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "luck" and "lurch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lucca vs lurch". 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 #282,015 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.