loosvslopesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,546
“loos” frequency rank
#44,310
“lopes” frequency rank
81856
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loos lopes
Definition plural of loo plural of lope

Where the eye mixes loos and lopes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. loos runs 4 letters (CVVC) against lopes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
loos
5 ch
lopes

Look-alike desk: loos vs lopes

A purely visual mix-up. loos (/luːz/) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81856, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loos is recorded at frequency rank #37,546, classified as anoun, pronounced /luːz/. 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 81856, this pair ranks #16,845 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of loos vs lopes

Shared letters: los. Private to "loos": -. Private to "lopes": ep.

"loos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "lopes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loos ← lloos · looss · loso · olos
  • lopes ← llopes · loeps · lopess · loppes · lopse · lpoes · olpes

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "loos" and "lopes" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/luːz/ versus /loʊps/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "loos" or "lopes"?
"loos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,546 in our English list, against #44,310 for "lopes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "loos" 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 #16,845 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loos" 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 #16,845 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