Which to use
“loos” and “louse” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #37,546
- “loos” frequency rank
- #47,167
- “louse” frequency rank
- 84713
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | loos | louse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of loo | A small parasitic wingless insect of the order Psocodea. |
Where the eye mixes loos and louse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. loos runs 4 letters (CVVC) against louse's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: loos vs louse
A purely visual mix-up. loos (/luːz/) and louse (/laʊs/) 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 84713, 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/. louse is at rank #47,167, tagged as anoun, pronounced /laʊs/.
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 84713, this pair ranks #11,589 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of loos vs louse
Shared letters: los. Private to "loos": -. Private to "louse": eu.
"loos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "louse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "loos" and "louse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "loos" or "louse" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "loos" and "louse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "loos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "louse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #11,589 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "loos" and "louse" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lope vs louse". 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 #11,589 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.