Which to use
“lose” is a verb and “louse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #879
- “lose” frequency rank
- #47,167
- “louse” frequency rank
- 48046
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lose | louse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To cease to have (something) in one's possession or capability. | A small parasitic wingless insect of the order Psocodea. |
Where the eye mixes lose and louse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. lose runs 4 letters (CVCV) against louse's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between lose and louse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lose is /luːz/ while louse is /laʊs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48046, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lose is recorded at frequency rank #879, classified as averb, 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 48046, this pair ranks #196,819 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lose vs louse
Shared letters: elos. Private to "lose": -. Private to "louse": u.
"lose" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "louse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lose" and "louse" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "lose" or "louse"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "lose" 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 #196,819 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lose" 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 #196,819 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.