LosevsLöwenWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: Lose is a noun, Löwen is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Lose” is a noun and “Löwen” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,246
“Lose” frequency rank
#3,829
“Löwen” frequency rank
12075
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lose Löwen
Definition Variante für den Dativ Singular des Substantivs Los Stadt in Belgien

Where the eye mixes Lose and Löwen

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Lose runs 4 letters (CVCV) against Löwen's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Lose
5 ch
Löwen

Visual trap between Lose and Löwen

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Lose is [ˈloːzə] while Löwen is [ˈløːvn̩]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12075, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lose is recorded at frequency rank #8,246, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈloːzə]. Löwen is at rank #3,829, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈløːvn̩].

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 12075, this pair ranks #1,966,313 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of Lose vs Löwen

Shared letters: el. Private to "Lose": os. Private to "Löwen": nwö.

"Lose" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Löwen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Lose ← llose · loes · losse · lsoe · olse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Lose" for "Löwen" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Lose" is a noun and "Löwen" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Lose" vs "Löwen" - which ranks higher?
"Löwen" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,829 in our German list, against #8,246 for "Lose". 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 "Lose" and "Löwen" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lose" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Löwen" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,966,313 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lose" and "Löwen" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lame 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 #1,966,313 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list