lockvsloftConfusable pair

Which to use

“lock” and “loft” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#34,658
“lock” frequency rank
#44,838
“loft” frequency rank
79496
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lock loft
Definition Cerradura. Ático, desván o área de almacenamiento, usualmente con techo inclinado.

Where the eye mixes lock and loft

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lock and loft follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
lock
4 ch
loft

Visual trap between lock and loft

A purely visual mix-up. lock (/lɒk/) and loft (/lɒft/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79496, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lock is recorded at frequency rank #34,658, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɒk/. loft is at rank #44,838, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɒft/.

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 79496, this pair ranks #12,925 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lock vs loft

Shared letters: lo. Private to "lock": ck. Private to "loft": ft.

"lock" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "loft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lock ← lcok · llock · locck · lockk · lokc · olck
  • loft ← lfot · lloft · lofft · loftt · lotf · olft

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lock" for "loft" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/lɒk/ versus /lɒft/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "lock" or "loft" show up more?
"lock" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,658 in our Spanish list, against #44,838 for "loft". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lock" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loft" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,925 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lock" and "loft" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loft vs lotto". 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 #12,925 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