LukevslustConfusable pair

Quick tell: Luke is a name, lust is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Luke” is a name and “lust” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,312
“Luke” frequency rank
#10,882
“lust” frequency rank
14194
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Luke lust
Definition A male given name. A feeling of strong desire, especially such a feeling driven by sexual arousal.

Where the eye mixes Luke and lust

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

4 ch
Luke
4 ch
lust

Look-alike desk: Luke vs lust

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Luke is /lyk/ while lust is /ˈlʌst/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14194, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Luke is recorded at frequency rank #3,312, classified as aname, pronounced /lyk/. 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 14194, this pair ranks #471,517 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Luke vs lust

Shared letters: lu. Private to "Luke": ek. Private to "lust": st.

"Luke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lust" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lukelkue · lluke · luek · lukke · ulke
  • lustllust · lusst · lustt · luts · ulst

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Luke" and "lust" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Luke" is a name and "lust" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "Luke" or "lust" show up more?
"Luke" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,312 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.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Luke" 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 #471,517 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Luke" 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

Confusion rank #471,517 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list