lothvsluthWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#45,714
“loth” frequency rank
#36,476
“luth” frequency rank
82190
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loth luth
Definition Variante orthographique de loath. Cordophone portable d’origine arabe, de corps généralement piriforme prolongé par un manche recouvert d'une touche sur laquelle le musicien appuie avec les doigts d'une main les cordes tendues attachées au cordier à une extrémité, et à la table d'harmonie à l'autre, ceci afin de modifier les notes obtenues, tandis que de l'autre main il excite les cordes à vibrer au-dessus de la caisse de résonance, soit en les tirant et les relâchant vivement, ou les frappant, soit en les frottant avec un outil tel un archet.

Letter map: loth vs luth

Shared letters muted; letters that set loth and luth apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch
loth
4 ch
luth

Grammar separator: loth vs luth

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: loth is anadjective and luthanoun. On the page they differ by a single letter - o in “loth” becomes u in “luth”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82190, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loth is recorded at frequency rank #45,714, classified as anadj. luth is at rank #36,476, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lyt\.

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 82190, this pair ranks #17,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of loth vs luth

Shared letters: hlt. Private to "loth": o. Private to "luth": u.

"loth" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "luth" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lothlloth · loht · lothh · lotth · ltoh · olth
  • luthlluth · ltuh · luht · luthh · lutth · ulth

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "loth" for "luth" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "loth" is an adjective and "luth" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "loth" or "luth"?
"luth" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,476 in our French list, against #45,714 for "loth". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "loth" and "luth". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "loth" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luth" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,214 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loth" and "luth" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs loth". 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 #17,214 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list