lobster
/ˈlɒb.stə/
"lobster" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lobster” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #12,093 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #12,093
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A crustacean of the Nephropidae family, dark green or blue-black in colour turning bright red when cooked, with a hard shell and claws, which is used as a seafood.
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 | lobster |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈlɒb.stə/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #12,093 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lobster” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for lobster is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈlɒb.stə/. Corpus data places it at rank #12,093 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 6 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for lobster, with forms such as "lboster", "llobster", and "lobbster". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "loser", "looser", "luster", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English loppestere, lopster, from Old English loppestre, lopustre, lopystre, of uncertain origin. Some believe it to be a corruption of Latin lō̆custa (“grasshopper, locust”) + the Old English feminine agent suffix -estre. In Latin, the phrase l… The correct English form is lobster, spelled L-O-B-S-T-E-R.
Definition
- 1A crustacean of the Nephropidae family, dark green or blue-black in colour turning bright red when cooked, with a hard shell and claws, which is used as a seafood.
- 2Various other crustaceans that resemble true lobsters:
- 3Various other crustaceans that resemble true lobsters:
- 4Various other crustaceans that resemble true lobsters:
- 5A soldier or officer of the imperial British Army (due to their red or scarlet uniform).
- 6An Australian twenty-dollar note, due to its reddish-orange colour.
Etymology
From Middle English loppestere, lopster, from Old English loppestre, lopustre, lopystre, of uncertain origin. Some believe it to be a corruption of Latin lō̆custa (“grasshopper, locust”) + the Old English feminine agent suffix -estre. In Latin, the phrase lō̆custa marīna (literally "sea-grasshopper") signified a type of crustacean (shrimp or lobster). Alternatively, from Old English lobbe, loppe (“spider”) + the Old English feminine agent suffix -estre, equivalent to lop + -ster.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: lboster,llobster,lobbster,lobsetr,lobsster,lobsterr,lobstre,lobstter,lobtser,losbter,olbster
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of lobster - 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 "lobster"?
What does "lobster" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "lobster"?
How do you pronounce "lobster"?
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Using “lobster”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-O-B-S-T-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈlɒb.stə/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “loser” - see the side-by-side comparison. lobster vs loser
- 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.