LuvslukeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Lu is a name, luke is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Lu” is a name and “luke” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,333
“Lu” frequency rank
#8,732
“luke” frequency rank
10065
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lu luke
Definition Commune de la province d’Alexandrie dans le Piémont en Italie. Sans considération pour, sans tenir compte de.

Where the eye mixes Lu and luke

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

2 ch
Lu
4 ch
luke

Visual trap between Lu and luke

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Lu is \ly\ while luke is \ˈlukɛ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “Lu” sits inside “luke”, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10065, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lu is recorded at frequency rank #1,333, classified as aname, pronounced \ly\. 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 10065, this pair ranks #414,340 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Lu vs luke

Shared letters: lu. Private to "Lu": -. Private to "luke": ek.

"Lu" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "luke" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lukelkue · lluke · luek · lukke · ulke

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Lu" for "luke" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lu" is a name and "luke" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Lu" or "luke"?
"Lu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,333 in our French list, against #8,732 for "luke". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lu" 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 #414,340 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lu" and "luke" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "liker vs luke". 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 #414,340 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