luckvsluvWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,312
“luck” frequency rank
#25,830
“luv” frequency rank
27142
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature luck luv
Definition Something that happens to someone by chance, a chance occurrence. Deliberate misspelling of love.

Where the eye mixes luck and luv

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

4 ch
luck
3 ch
luv

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. luck (/lʌk/) and luv (/lʌv/) 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 27142, 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/. luv is at rank #25,830, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lʌv/.

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 27142, this pair ranks #381,260 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of luck vs luv

Shared letters: lu. Private to "luck": ck. Private to "luv": v.

"luck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "luv" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lucklcuk · lluck · lucck · luckk · lukc · ulck

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "luck" and "luv" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/lʌk/ versus /lʌv/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "luck" or "luv"?
"luck" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,312 in our English list, against #25,830 for "luv". 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