lusovslutoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#44,297
“luso” frequency rank
#11,444
“luto” frequency rank
55741
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature luso luto
Definition Originario, relativo a, o propio de Portugal. Expresión de pena por la muerte de una persona, se manifiesta en la ropa y accesorios de color negro, así como en adornos que se colocan en el lugar donde vivía o donde se vela el difunto.

Where the eye mixes luso and luto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. luso and luto follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
luso
4 ch
luto

Visual trap between luso and luto

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: luso is [ˈluso] while luto is [ˈlut̪o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - s in “luso” becomes t in “luto”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55741, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

luso is recorded at frequency rank #44,297, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈluso]. luto is at rank #11,444, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlut̪o].

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 55741, this pair ranks #77,564 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of luso vs luto

Shared letters: lou. Private to "luso": s. Private to "luto": t.

"luso" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "luto" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • luso ← lluso · lsuo · luos · lusso · ulso
  • luto ← lluto · ltuo · luot · lutto · ulto

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "luso" and "luto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "luso" is an adjective and "luto" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "luso" vs "luto" - which ranks higher?
"luto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,444 in our Spanish list, against #44,297 for "luso". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "luso" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #77,564 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "luso" and "luto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ledo vs luso". 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 #77,564 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