luckvsluxWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,312
“luck” frequency rank
#18,878
“lux” frequency rank
20190
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature luck lux
Definition Something that happens to someone by chance, a chance occurrence. In the International System of Units, the derived unit of illuminance or illumination; one lumen per square metre. Symbol: lx

Where the eye mixes luck and lux

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

4 ch
luck
3 ch
lux

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. luck (/lʌk/) and lux (/lʌks/) 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 20190, 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/. lux is at rank #18,878, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lʌks/.

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 20190, this pair ranks #432,883 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of luck vs lux

Shared letters: lu. Private to "luck": ck. Private to "lux": x.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "luck" and "lux" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/lʌk/ versus /lʌks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "luck" or "lux"?
"luck" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,312 in our English list, against #18,878 for "lux". 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