luckvslustWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,312
“luck” frequency rank
#10,882
“lust” frequency rank
12194
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature luck lust
Definition Something that happens to someone by chance, a chance occurrence. A feeling of strong desire, especially such a feeling driven by sexual arousal.

Where the eye mixes luck and lust

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

4 ch
luck
4 ch
lust

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. luck (/lʌk/) and lust (/ˈlʌst/) 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 12194, 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/. lust is at rank #10,882, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlʌst/.

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 12194, this pair ranks #482,915 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of luck vs lust

Shared letters: lu. Private to "luck": ck. Private to "lust": st.

"luck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "lust" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lucklcuk · lluck · lucck · luckk · lukc · ulck
  • lustllust · lusst · lustt · luts · ulst

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "luck" and "lust" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/lʌk/ versus /ˈlʌst/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "luck" or "lust"?
"luck" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,312 in our English list, against #10,882 for "lust". 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 "luck" and "lust". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "luck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lust" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #482,915 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "luck" and "lust" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "LSC vs lust". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list