luckvslungConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#38,798
“luck” frequency rank
#45,426
“lung” frequency rank
84224
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature luck lung
Definition Suerte Pulmón.

Where the eye mixes luck and lung

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

4 ch
luck
4 ch
lung

Look-alike desk: luck vs lung

A purely visual mix-up. luck (/lʌk/) and lung (/lʌŋ/) 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 84224, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

luck is recorded at frequency rank #38,798, classified as anoun, pronounced /lʌk/. lung is at rank #45,426, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lʌŋ/.

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 84224, this pair ranks #7,276 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of luck vs lung

Shared letters: lu. Private to "luck": ck. Private to "lung": gn.

"luck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "lung" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lucklcuk · lluck · lucck · luckk · lukc · ulck
  • lungllung · lnug · lugn · lungg · lunng · ulng

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "luck" for "lung" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/lʌk/ versus /lʌŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "luck" or "lung"?
"luck" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #38,798 in our Spanish list, against #45,426 for "lung". 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 "luck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lung" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,276 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "luck" and "lung" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "longo vs lung". 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 #7,276 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