locovsloftWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: loco is a adjective, loft is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“loco” is an adjective and “loft” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#972
“loco” frequency rank
#44,838
“loft” frequency rank
45810
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loco loft
Definition Que no está en su sano juicio, que se comporta de forma irracional. Ático, desván o área de almacenamiento, usualmente con techo inclinado.

Where the eye mixes loco and loft

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. loco (CVCV) and loft (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
loco
4 ch
loft

Look-alike desk: loco vs loft

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: loco is [ˈloko] while loft is /lɒft/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45810, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loco is recorded at frequency rank #972, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈloko]. 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 45810, this pair ranks #129,328 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of loco vs loft

Shared letters: lo. Private to "loco": c. Private to "loft": ft.

"loco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "loft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loco ← lcoo · lloco · locco · looc · olco
  • loft ← lfot · lloft · lofft · loftt · lotf · olft

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "loco" for "loft" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "loco" is an adjective and "loft" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "loco" or "loft" show up more?
"loco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #972 in our Spanish list, against #44,838 for "loft". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "loco" 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 #129,328 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loco" 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 #129,328 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