Which to use
“lumber” is a noun and “Lumley” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,189
- “lumber” frequency rank
- #48,337
- “Lumley” frequency rank
- 61526
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lumber | Lumley |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Wood sawn into planks or otherwise prepared for sale or use, especially as a building material. | A surname from Old English. |
Letter map: lumber vs Lumley
Shared letters muted; letters that set lumber and Lumley apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. lumber (CVCCVC) and Lumley (CVCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Role in the sentence - lumber and Lumley
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lumber is anoun and Lumleyaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61526, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lumber is recorded at frequency rank #13,189, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlʌm.bə/. Lumley is at rank #48,337, tagged as aname.
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 61526, this pair ranks #93,751 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lumber vs Lumley
Shared letters: elmu. Private to "lumber": br. Private to "Lumley": y.
"lumber" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "Lumley" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lumber" for "Lumley" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lumber" vs "Lumley" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pair "lumber" vs "Lumley" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "lumber" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "Lumley" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #93,751 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lumber" and "Lumley" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lumley vs lumpy". 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 #93,751 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.