lopvslopesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lop is a verb, lopes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lop” is a verb and “lopes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,741
“lop” frequency rank
#44,310
“lopes” frequency rank
86051
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lop lopes
Definition To cut off as the top or extreme part of anything, especially to prune a small limb off a shrub or tree, or sometimes to behead someone. plural of lope

Where the eye mixes lop and lopes

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

3 ch
lop
5 ch
lopes

Look-alike desk: lop vs lopes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lop is /lɒp/ while lopes is /loʊps/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “lop” sits inside “lopes”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86051, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lop is recorded at frequency rank #41,741, classified as averb, pronounced /lɒp/. 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 86051, this pair ranks #9,494 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lop vs lopes

Shared letters: lop. Private to "lop": -. Private to "lopes": es.

"lop" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "lopes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lopes ← llopes · loeps · lopess · loppes · lopse · lpoes · olpes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lop" for "lopes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lop" is a verb and "lopes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lop" vs "lopes" - which ranks higher?
"lop" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,741 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.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lop" 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 #9,494 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lop" 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 #9,494 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