locovslopeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: loco is a adverb, lope is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“loco” is an adverb and “lope” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,141
“loco” frequency rank
#49,466
“lope” frequency rank
71607
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loco lope
Definition A direction in written or printed music to be returning to the proper pitch after having played an octave higher or lower. To travel an easy pace with long strides.

Where the eye mixes loco and lope

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
loco
4 ch
lope

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: loco is /ˈləʊ.kəʊ/ while lope is /ləʊp/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71607, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loco is recorded at frequency rank #22,141, classified as anadv, pronounced /ˈləʊ.kəʊ/. lope is at rank #49,466, tagged as averb, pronounced /ləʊp/.

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 71607, this pair ranks #46,067 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of loco vs lope

Shared letters: lo. Private to "loco": c. Private to "lope": ep.

"loco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lope" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • locolcoo · lloco · locco · looc · olco
  • lopellope · loep · loppe · lpoe · olpe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "loco" and "lope" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "loco" is an adverb and "lope" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "loco" or "lope"?
"loco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,141 in our English list, against #49,466 for "lope". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list