Which to use
“loopy” and “lousy” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #43,243
- “loopy” frequency rank
- #19,383
- “lousy” frequency rank
- 62626
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | loopy | lousy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having loops. | Remarkably bad; of poor quality. |
Where the eye mixes loopy and lousy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. loopy and lousy follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: loopy vs lousy
A purely visual mix-up. loopy (/ˈluː.pi/) and lousy (/ˈlaʊ.zi/) 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 62626, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
loopy is recorded at frequency rank #43,243, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈluː.pi/. lousy is at rank #19,383, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈlaʊ.zi/.
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 62626, this pair ranks #87,445 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of loopy vs lousy
Shared letters: loy. Private to "loopy": p. Private to "lousy": su.
"loopy" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "lousy" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "loopy" for "lousy" ever safe?
Frequency check: "loopy" vs "lousy" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "loopy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lousy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #87,445 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "loopy" and "lousy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loopy vs lope". 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 #87,445 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.