lute
/l(j)uːt/
"lute" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“lute” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #34,168 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #34,168
- frequency rank, English
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A fretted stringed instrument, similar to the guitar, having a bowl-shaped body or soundbox; any of a wide variety of chordophones with a pear-shaped body and a neck whose upper surface is in the s...
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 | lute |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /l(j)uːt/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #34,168 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “lute” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for lute is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /l(j)uːt/. Corpus data places it at rank #34,168 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "A fretted stringed instrument, similar to the guitar, having a bowl-shaped body or soundbox; any of a wide variety of chordophones with a pear-shaped body and a neck whose upper surface is in the s...".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for lute, with forms such as "llute", "ltue", and "luet". 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", "luv", "luz", 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 French lut (modern luth), from Old French leüt, probably from Old Occitan laüt, from Arabic اَلْعُود (al-ʕūd, “wood”) (probably representing an Andalusian Arabic or North African pronunciation). Doublet of oud, lavta, and laouto. The correct English form is lute, spelled L-U-T-E.
Definition
- 1A fretted stringed instrument, similar to the guitar, having a bowl-shaped body or soundbox; any of a wide variety of chordophones with a pear-shaped body and a neck whose upper surface is in the same plane as the soundboard, with strings along the neck and parallel to the soundboard.
Etymology
From Middle French lut (modern luth), from Old French leüt, probably from Old Occitan laüt, from Arabic اَلْعُود (al-ʕūd, “wood”) (probably representing an Andalusian Arabic or North African pronunciation). Doublet of oud, lavta, and laouto.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: llute,ltue,luet,lutte,ulte
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of lute - 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 “lute”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is L-U-T-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /l(j)uːt/ (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. lute 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.