lovslutoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: lo is a article, luto is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lo” is an article and “luto” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#19
“lo” frequency rank
#11,444
“luto” frequency rank
11463
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lo luto
Definition Artículo determinado de género neutro que se usa para sustantivar adjetivos o frases. Forma del neutro de el. Expresión de pena por la muerte de una persona, se manifiesta en la ropa y accesorios de color negro, así como en adornos que se colocan en el lugar donde vivía o donde se vela el difunto.

Where the eye mixes lo and luto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch
lo
4 ch
luto

Visual trap between lo and luto

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lo is [lo] while luto is [ˈlut̪o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (article vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11463, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lo is recorded at frequency rank #19, classified as anarticle, pronounced [lo]. luto is at rank #11,444, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlut̪o].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 11463, this pair ranks #295,026 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of lo vs luto

Shared letters: lo. Private to "lo": -. Private to "luto": tu.

"lo" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "luto" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lutolluto · ltuo · luot · lutto · ulto

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lo" and "luto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lo" is an article and "luto" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lo" or "luto"?
"lo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19 in our Spanish list, against #11,444 for "luto". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "lo" and "luto" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #295,026 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lo" and "luto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lotto vs luto". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #295,026 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list