Which to use
“louse” is a noun and “lousy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #47,167
- “louse” frequency rank
- #19,383
- “lousy” frequency rank
- 66550
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | louse | lousy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A small parasitic wingless insect of the order Psocodea. | Remarkably bad; of poor quality. |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set louse and lousy apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: louse is /laʊs/ while lousy is /ˈlaʊ.zi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “louse” becomes y in “lousy”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66550, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
louse is recorded at frequency rank #47,167, classified as anoun, pronounced /laʊs/. 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 66550, this pair ranks #67,449 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of louse vs lousy
Shared letters: losu. Private to "louse": e. Private to "lousy": y.
"louse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "lousy" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "louse" and "lousy" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "louse" or "lousy"?
Remembering louse vs lousy
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “louse”; for an adjective, it's “lousy”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “louse” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable