Which to use
“luster” and “lustre” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,486
- “luster” frequency rank
- #30,124
- “lustre” frequency rank
- 60610
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | luster | lustre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The ability or condition of shining with reflected light; sheen, gleam, gloss, sparkle, shine, etc. | British standard spelling of luster (shine, etc.). |
Where the eye mixes luster and lustre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between luster and lustre
A purely visual mix-up. luster (/ˈlʌstɚ/) and lustre (/ˈlʌstə/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ only by swapping two adjacent letters (er ↔ re) - a transposition the eye reads straight past. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60610, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
luster is recorded at frequency rank #30,486, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlʌstɚ/. lustre is at rank #30,124, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlʌstə/.
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 60610, this pair ranks #99,212 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of luster vs lustre
Shared letters: elrstu. Private to "luster": -. Private to "lustre": -.
"luster" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "lustre" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "luster" and "lustre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "luster" or "lustre"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "luster" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lustre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #99,212 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "luster" and "lustre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "luger vs luster". 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 #99,212 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.