lunvslunarWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#37,198
“lun” frequency rank
#10,525
“lunar” frequency rank
47723
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lun lunar
Definition Flácido, suave, débil. Mancha en la piel similar a la peca, pero de color más intenso y que puede formar una prominencia o tener una textura diferente a la piel que la rodea.

Where the eye mixes lun and lunar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lun runs 3 letters (CVC) against lunar's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
lun
5 ch
lunar

Visual trap between lun and lunar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lun is [lun] while lunar is [luˈnaɾ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “lun” sits inside “lunar”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47723, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lun is recorded at frequency rank #37,198, classified as anadj, pronounced [lun]. lunar is at rank #10,525, tagged as anoun, pronounced [luˈnaɾ].

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 47723, this pair ranks #118,484 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lun vs lunar

Shared letters: lnu. Private to "lun": -. Private to "lunar": ar.

"lun" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lunar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lunar ← llunar · lnuar · luanr · lunarr · lunnar · lunra · ulnar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lun" for "lunar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lun" is an adjective and "lunar" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lun" vs "lunar" - which ranks higher?
"lunar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,525 in our Spanish list, against #37,198 for "lun". 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 "lun" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lunar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #118,484 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lun" and "lunar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lac vs lun". 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 #118,484 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