loath
/ləʊθ/
"loath" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“loath” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #43,241 in English word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #43,241
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Averse, disinclined; reluctant, unwilling. Always followed by a verbal phrase.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | loath |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ləʊθ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #43,241 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “loath” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for loath is 5 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ləʊθ/. Corpus data places it at rank #43,241 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for loath, with forms such as "laoth", "lloath", and "loaht". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "lot", "Loh", "lost", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English lōth (“loath; averse, hateful”), from Old English lāð, lāþ (“evil; loathsome”), or Old Norse leið, leiðr (“uncomfortable; tired”) from Proto-Germanic *laiþaz (“loath; hostile; sad, sorry”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyt- (“… The correct English form is loath, spelled L-O-A-T-H.
Definition
- 1Averse, disinclined; reluctant, unwilling. Always followed by a verbal phrase.
- 2Angry, hostile.
- 3Loathsome, unpleasant.
Etymology
From Middle English lōth (“loath; averse, hateful”), from Old English lāð, lāþ (“evil; loathsome”), or Old Norse leið, leiðr (“uncomfortable; tired”) from Proto-Germanic *laiþaz (“loath; hostile; sad, sorry”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂leyt- (“to do something abhorrent or hateful”). The word is cognate with Danish led (“disgusting, loathsome; nasty”), Dutch leed (“sad; (Belgium) angry”), French laid (“ugly; morally corrupt”), Catalan lleig (“ugly”), Icelandic leiður (“annoyed, vexed; sad; (archaic or poetic) annoying, wearisome”), Italian laido (“filthy, foul; obscene”), Old Frisian leed, Old High German leid (Middle High German leit, modern German leid (“uncomfortable”), Leid (“grief, sorrow, woe; affliction, suffering; harm, injury; wrong”)), Old Saxon lêð, lēth (“evil person or thing”), Swedish led (“bored; tired; (archaic) disgusting, loathsome; evil”).
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: laoth,lloath,loaht,loathh,loatth,lotah,olath
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of loath - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "loath"?
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Using “loath”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-O-A-T-H - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ləʊθ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “lot” - see the side-by-side comparison. loath vs lot
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.