Which to use
“lime” is a noun and “luke” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #24,271
- “lime” frequency rank
- #8,732
- “luke” frequency rank
- 33003
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lime | luke |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Outil de fer ou d’acier, plus ou moins long et étroit, d’une forme plate, ronde ou triangulaire, dont la surface est couverte d’entailles qui se croisent, et qui sert à dégrossir, à couper, à polir des métaux. | Sans considération pour, sans tenir compte de. |
Where the eye mixes lime and luke
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: lime vs luke
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lime is \lim\ while luke is \ˈlukɛ\. 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 (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33003, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lime is recorded at frequency rank #24,271, classified as anoun, pronounced \lim\. luke is at rank #8,732, tagged as aprep, pronounced \ˈlukɛ\.
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 33003, this pair ranks #293,521 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lime vs luke
Shared letters: el. Private to "lime": im. Private to "luke": ku.
"lime" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "luke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lime" and "luke" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "lime" vs "luke" - which ranks higher?
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 "lime" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "luke" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #293,521 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lime" and "luke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "liker vs lime". 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 #293,521 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.