longvslookWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#4,319
“long” frequency rank
#5,222
“look” frequency rank
9541
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature long look
Definition longo, comprido estilo de moda

Letter map: long vs look

Shared letters muted; letters that set long and look apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
long
4 ch
look

Grammar separator: long vs look

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: long is anadjective and lookanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9541, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

long is recorded at frequency rank #4,319, classified as anadj, pronounced /lɔŋ/, /lɑŋ/. look is at rank #5,222, tagged as anoun.

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 9541, this pair ranks #63,844 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of long vs look

Shared letters: lo. Private to "long": gn. Private to "look": k.

"long" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "look" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • longllong · lnog · logn · longg · lonng · olng
  • lookllook · lok · loko · lookk · olok

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "long" for "look" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "long" is an adjective and "look" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "long" or "look" show up more?
"long" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,319 in our Portuguese list, against #5,222 for "look". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "long" and "look". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "long" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "look" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #63,844 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "long" and "look" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loch vs look". 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 #63,844 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list