luck
/lʌk/
"luck" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“luck” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #1,312 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #1,312
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Something that happens to someone by chance, a chance occurrence.
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 | luck |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /lʌk/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #1,312 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “luck” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for luck is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /lʌk/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,312 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for luck, with forms such as "lcuk", "lluck", and "lucck". 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, "lux", "lug", "luv", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English luk, lukke, related to Old Frisian luk (“luck”), West Frisian gelok (“luck”), Saterland Frisian Gluk (“luck”), Dutch geluk (“luck, happiness”), Low German luk (“luck”), German Glück (“luck, good fortune, happiness”), Danish lykke (“luck”… The correct English form is luck, spelled L-U-C-K.
Definition
- 1Something that happens to someone by chance, a chance occurrence.
- 2Something that happens to someone by chance, a chance occurrence.
- 3A superstitious feeling that brings fortune or success.
- 4Success.
- 5The results of a random number generator.
Etymology
From Middle English luk, lukke, related to Old Frisian luk (“luck”), West Frisian gelok (“luck”), Saterland Frisian Gluk (“luck”), Dutch geluk (“luck, happiness”), Low German luk (“luck”), German Glück (“luck, good fortune, happiness”), Danish lykke (“luck”), Swedish lycka (“luck”), Icelandic lukka (“luck”). According to the OED, it may be related to lock. A loanword into English in the 15th century (probably as a gambling term) from Middle Dutch luc, a shortened form of gheluc (“good fortune”), whence Modern Dutch geluk. Middle Dutch luc, gheluc has parallels with Middle High German lücke, gelücke (Modern German Glück). The word occurs only from the 12th century, apparently first in Rhine Frankish. Perhaps from a Frankish *galukki. The word enters standard Middle High German during the 13th century, and spreads to English and Scandinavian in the Late Middle Ages. Its origin seems to have been regional or dialectal, and there were competing German words such as gevelle or schick, or the Latinate fortūne from Latin fortūna. Its etymology is unknown, although there are numerous proposals as to its derivations from a number of roots. Use as a verb in American English is late (1940s), but there was a Middle English verb lukken (“to chance, to happen by good fortune”) in the 15th century.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: lcuk,lluck,lucck,luckk,lukc,ulck
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of luck - 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 "luck"?
What does "luck" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "luck"?
How do you pronounce "luck"?
What is the origin of the word "luck"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “luck”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-U-C-K - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /lʌk/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “lux” - see the side-by-side comparison. luck vs lux
- 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.