loansvslopesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“loans” and “lopes” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#2,953
“loans” frequency rank
#44,310
“lopes” frequency rank
47263
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loans lopes
Definition plural of loan plural of lope

Where the eye mixes loans and lopes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
loans
5 ch
lopes

Why the eye confuses loans with lopes

A purely visual mix-up. loans (/loʊnz/) and lopes (/loʊps/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47263, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loans is recorded at frequency rank #2,953, classified as anoun, pronounced /loʊnz/. lopes is at rank #44,310, tagged as anoun, pronounced /loʊps/.

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 47263, this pair ranks #204,062 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of loans vs lopes

Shared letters: los. Private to "loans": an. Private to "lopes": ep.

"loans" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "lopes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loanslaons · lloans · loanns · loanss · loasn · lonas · olans
  • lopesllopes · loeps · lopess · loppes · lopse · lpoes · olpes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "loans" for "lopes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/loʊnz/ versus /loʊps/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "loans" or "lopes"?
"loans" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,953 in our English list, against #44,310 for "lopes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "loans" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lopes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #204,062 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loans" and "lopes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lope vs lopes". 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 #204,062 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list