lover
/ˈlʌvɚ/
"lover" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lover” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #4,611 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #4,611
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - One who loves and cares for another person in a romantic way; a sweetheart, love, soulmate, boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse.
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 | lover |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈlʌvɚ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #4,611 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lover” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for lover is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈlʌvɚ/. Corpus data places it at rank #4,611 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 4 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 lover, with forms such as "llover", "loevr", and "loverr". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "lowe", "lower", "loves", 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 lovere, luffer, lufere, equivalent to love + -er. The correct English form is lover, spelled L-O-V-E-R.
Definition
- 1One who loves and cares for another person in a romantic way; a sweetheart, love, soulmate, boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse.
- 2A sexual partner, especially one with whom someone is having an affair.
- 3A person who loves something.
- 4An informal term of address for any friend.
Etymology
From Middle English lovere, luffer, lufere, equivalent to love + -er.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: llover,loevr,loverr,lovre,lovver,lvoer,olver
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of lover - 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
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Using “lover”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-O-V-E-R - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈlʌvɚ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “lowe” - see the side-by-side comparison. lover vs lowe
- 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.