loftvslostWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#44,838
“loft” frequency rank
#18,302
“lost” frequency rank
63140
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loft lost
Definition Ático, desván o área de almacenamiento, usualmente con techo inclinado. Cola de animal.

Where the eye mixes loft and lost

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
loft
4 ch
lost

Look-alike desk: loft vs lost

A purely visual mix-up. loft (/lɒft/) and lost (/ˈlɔst/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - f in “loft” becomes s in “lost”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loft is recorded at frequency rank #44,838, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɒft/. lost is at rank #18,302, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɔst/.

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 63140, this pair ranks #49,710 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of loft vs lost

Shared letters: lot. Private to "loft": f. Private to "lost": s.

"loft" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "lost" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loftlfot · lloft · lofft · loftt · lotf · olft
  • lostllost · losst · lostt · lots · lsot · olst

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "loft" for "lost" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/lɒft/ versus /ˈlɔst/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "loft" vs "lost" - which ranks higher?
"lost" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,302 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "loft" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lost" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,710 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loft" and "lost" 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 #49,710 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