love
/lʌv/
"love" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“love” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #147. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #147
- 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 deep caring for the existence of another.
Corpus desk
Index EN-love · love · English
love · rank #147 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #147
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH such
Nearest frequency peer: such (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “love”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- while
while
99,857 corpus weight
- best
best
99,856 corpus weight
- such
such
99,855 corpus weight
- love
love
99,854 corpus weight
- man
man
99,853 corpus weight
- home
home
99,852 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “love” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | love |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /lʌv/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #147 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “love” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around love (IPA /lʌv/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #147 among 2,297 “L” headwords. Wiktionary lists 15 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for love, with forms such as "llove", "loev", and "lovve". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "LV", "low", "luv", 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 love, luve, from Old English lufu, from Proto-West Germanic *lubu, from Proto-Germanic *lubō, from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- (“love, care, desire”). The close of a letter sense is presumably a truncation of With love or the like. The v… The correct English form is love, spelled L-O-V-E.
Definition
- 1A deep caring for the existence of another.
- 2Strong affection.
- 3Strong affection.
- 4Strong affection.
- 5Strong affection.
- 6A person who is the object of romantic feelings; a darling, a sweetheart, a beloved.
- 7A term of friendly address, regardless of feelings.
- 8A thing, activity, etc. which is the object of one's deep liking or enthusiasm.
- 9Sexual desire; attachment based on sexual attraction.
- 10Sexual activity.
- 11An instance or episode of being in love; a love affair.
- 12Used as the closing, before the signature, of a letter, especially between good friends or family members, or by the young.
- 13Alternative letter-case form of Love (“personification of love”).
- 14A thin silk material.
- 15A climbing plant, Clematis vitalba.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how love appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A mother’s love is not easily shaken.
My husband’s love is the most important thing in my life.
Etymology
From Middle English love, luve, from Old English lufu, from Proto-West Germanic *lubu, from Proto-Germanic *lubō, from Proto-Indo-European *lewbʰ- (“love, care, desire”). The close of a letter sense is presumably a truncation of With love or the like. The verb is from Middle English loven, luvien, from Old English lufian (“to love”), from Proto-West Germanic *lubōn (“to love”), derived from the noun. Eclipsed non-native English amour (“love”), borrowed from Norman amour (“love”). Cognates Cognate with Scots luve (“love”), Saterland Frisian ljo, ljoo, ljoof (“dear, sweet”), Ljoote, Ljoowe (“love”), West Frisian leaf (“friendly, kind, cordial”), leafde (“love”), Dutch lief (“lovely, nice, sweet”), liefde (“love”), German lieb (“dear; lovable”), Liebe (“love”), German Low German Leevde, Lieve (“love”), Luxembourgish léif (“lovely, kind, nice, sweet”), Léift (“love”), Vilamovian łiwa (“love”), Yiddish ליב (lib, “nice; kind”), Icelandic ljúfur (“beloved, dear”), Norwegian Nynorsk, Swedish ljuv (“lovely, sweet”), Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌿𐍆𐍃 (liufs, “beloved, dear”), Albanian lyp (“to beg”), Russian любовь (ljubovʹ, “love”), Lithuanian liaupsė (“praise”), Latin libido (“desire, lust”), Polish lubić (“to like”), Persian آلفتن (âloftan, “to enamor”), Sanskrit लोभ (lobha, “desire, greed”).
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- llove
- loev
- lovve
- lvoe
- olve
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of love - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "love"?
What does "love" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "love"?
How do you pronounce "love"?
What is the origin of the word "love"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "love", 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).
What to do next
You've looked up "love". Here's where to go from here.
- "love" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "LV". View pair
- 5 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #147 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "L" letter cohort. L–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.