lungvsluvWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,070
“lung” frequency rank
#25,830
“luv” frequency rank
31900
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lung luv
Definition A biological organ of vertebrates that controls breathing and oxygenates the blood. Deliberate misspelling of love.

Where the eye mixes lung and luv

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

4 ch
lung
3 ch
luv

Visual trap between lung and luv

A purely visual mix-up. lung (/ˈlʌŋ/) 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 31900, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lung is recorded at frequency rank #6,070, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlʌŋ/. 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 31900, this pair ranks #342,283 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lung vs luv

Shared letters: lu. Private to "lung": gn. Private to "luv": v.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lungllung · lnug · lugn · lungg · lunng · ulng

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lung" for "luv" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈlʌŋ/ versus /lʌv/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lung" or "luv"?
"lung" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,070 in our English list, against #25,830 for "luv". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "lung" and "luv" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lung" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luv" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #342,283 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lung" and "luv" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "LSC vs luv". 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 #342,283 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