loom
/luːm/
"loom" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“loom” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #18,612. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #18,612
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A utensil; tool; a weapon; (usually in compound) an article in general.
Corpus desk
Index EN-loom · loom · English
loom · rank #18,612 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #18,612
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH lofty
Nearest frequency peer: lofty (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “loom”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- likeness
likeness
81,393 corpus weight
- Lizzie
Lizzie
81,392 corpus weight
- lofty
lofty
81,390 corpus weight
- loom
loom
81,389 corpus weight
- ludicrous
ludicrous
81,387 corpus weight
- Maharashtra
Maharashtra
81,386 corpus weight
What this shows “loom” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | loom |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /luːm/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #18,612 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “loom”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around loom (IPA /luːm/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #18,612 among 2,297 “L” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for loom, with forms such as "lloom", "lom", and "lomo". 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", "low", "los", 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 lome, from Old English *lōma, ġelōma (“tool, utensil, implement, article of furniture, household effect”) (also as andlōma, andġelōma, andlama (“utensil, instrument, implement, tool, vessel”), from Proto-West Germanic *lōmō, *lamō (“tool… The correct English form is loom, spelled L-O-O-M.
Definition
- 1A utensil; tool; a weapon; (usually in compound) an article in general.
- 2A frame or machine of wood or other material, in which a weaver forms cloth out of thread; a machine for interweaving yarn or threads into a fabric, as in knitting or lace making.
- 3The part of an oar which is between the grip or handle and the blade; the shaft.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how loom appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
heirloom, workloom
January 8, 1751, Samuel Johnson, "The Mischiefs of Total Idleness" in The Rambler Hector, when he sees Andromache overwhelmed with terror, sends her for consolation to the loom and the distaff.
Etymology
From Middle English lome, from Old English *lōma, ġelōma (“tool, utensil, implement, article of furniture, household effect”) (also as andlōma, andġelōma, andlama (“utensil, instrument, implement, tool, vessel”), from Proto-West Germanic *lōmō, *lamō (“tool, utensil”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Dutch alaam, allaam (“tool, household ware or good, appliance”), from Middle Dutch andlame. Perhaps originally meaning "a thing of frequent use, thing repeatedly needed", in which case, akin to Old English ġelōme (“often, frequently, continually, repeatedly”), from Proto-Germanic *ga- + *lōmiz, *lōmijaz (“lame, halt”), from Proto-Indo-European *lem- (“to break, soften”). Compare Old High German giluomo, kilōmo (“often, frequently”), Old High German luomen (“to wear out, fatigue”), Old High German *luomī (as in gastluomī (“hospitality”), Old English lama (“lame”). See lame. Outside Proto-Germanic cognate with Russian ломи́ть (lomítʹ, “to break”), лома́ть (lomátʹ, “to break, to fracture”), ле́мех (lémex, “ploughshare”). Compare typologically Serbo-Croatian ра́збо̄ј (“loom (weaving frame)”) akin to ра̀збити (“to break, to smash, to crack”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- lloom
- lom
- lomo
- loomm
- olom
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of loom - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "loom", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).