Which to use
“luck” and “lut” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,927
- “luck” frequency rank
- #40,358
- “lut” frequency rank
- 63285
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | luck | lut |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chance. | Se dit de pâtes ou d'enduits qu'on applique sur les bouchons des vases pour en assurer la fermeture hermétique, autour des cornues, des tubes de verre pour les soustraire à l'action directe du feu, ou qu'on utilise pour obturer des trous, pour faire des joints etc. |
Where the eye mixes luck and lut
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses luck with lut
A purely visual mix-up. luck (\lʌk\) and lut (\lyt\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63285, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
luck is recorded at frequency rank #22,927, classified as anoun, pronounced \lʌk\. lut is at rank #40,358, 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 63285, this pair ranks #82,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of luck vs lut
Shared letters: lu. Private to "luck": ck. Private to "lut": t.
"luck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "lut" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- luck ← lcuk · lluck · lucck · luckk · lukc · ulck
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "luck" for "lut" ever safe?
Frequency check: "luck" vs "lut" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "luck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #82,757 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "luck" and "lut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lep vs lut". 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 #82,757 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.