lucre
/ˈluːkə/
"lucre" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lucre” is uncommon English (frequency #92,820 among 2,297 “L” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #92,820
- frequency rank, English
- 2,297
- “L” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Money, riches, or wealth, especially when seen as having a corrupting effect or causing greed, or obtained in an underhanded manner.
Corpus desk
Index EN-lucre · lucre · English
lucre · rank #92,820 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #92,820
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,297
- PHOTO-FINISH louden
Nearest frequency peer: louden (-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 “lucre”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- longform
longform
7,186 corpus weight
- louden
louden
7,182 corpus weight
- lucre
lucre
7,181 corpus weight
- lugubrious
lugubrious
7,180 corpus weight
- lumb
lumb
7,179 corpus weight
- Luoyang
Luoyang
7,178 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “lucre” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | lucre |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈluːkə/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #92,820 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lucre” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
lucre is uncommon English at frequency #92,820 among 2,297 “L” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈluːkə/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Money, riches, or wealth, especially when seen as having a corrupting effect or causing greed, or obtained in an underhanded manner.".
lucre doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable English rules. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English lūcre, lucor, lucour, lucur (“gain in money, profit; money; wages; illicit gain; advantage, benefit”), from Old French lucre or Latin lucrum (“advantage, profit; love of gain, avarice”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂w- (“gain, profit”) … The correct English form is lucre, spelled L-U-C-R-E.
Definition
- 1Money, riches, or wealth, especially when seen as having a corrupting effect or causing greed, or obtained in an underhanded manner.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how lucre appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A Biſhop then muſt be blameleſſe, the huſband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behauiour, giuen to hoſpitalitie, apt to teach; / Not giuen to wine, no ſtriker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not couetous; […]
By-ends and Silver-Demas both agree; / One calls, the other runs, that he may be / A ſharer in his lucre; ſo theſe two / Take up in this World, and no further go.
Etymology
From Middle English lūcre, lucor, lucour, lucur (“gain in money, profit; money; wages; illicit gain; advantage, benefit”), from Old French lucre or Latin lucrum (“advantage, profit; love of gain, avarice”), from Proto-Indo-European *leh₂w- (“gain, profit”) + *-tlom (variant of *-trom (suffix forming nouns denoting tools or instruments)).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "lucre", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
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- Usage frequency rank #92,820 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
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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.