longvsloseWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“long” and “lose” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,319
“long” frequency rank
#27,921
“lose” frequency rank
32240
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature long lose
Definition longo, comprido frouxo

Letter map: long vs lose

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

4 ch
long
4 ch
lose

Spelling & dictionary notes on long vs lose

long and lose are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32240, 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/. lose is at rank #27,921, tagged as anadj.

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 32240, this pair ranks #35,623 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of long vs lose

Shared letters: lo. Private to "long": gn. Private to "lose": es.

"long" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "lose" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • longllong · lnog · logn · longg · lonng · olng
  • losellose · loes · losse · lsoe · olse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "long" and "lose" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "long" vs "lose" - which ranks higher?
"long" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,319 in our Portuguese list, against #27,921 for "lose". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "long" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lose" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,623 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "long" and "lose" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loch vs lose". 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 #35,623 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