lousevsloweWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,167
“louse” frequency rank
#13,751
“lowe” frequency rank
60918
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature louse lowe
Definition A small parasitic wingless insect of the order Psocodea. Alternative form of low ("flame").

Letter map: louse vs lowe

Shared letters muted; letters that set louse and lowe apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
louse
4 ch
lowe

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

louse and lowe are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60918, 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/. lowe is at rank #13,751, tagged as anoun.

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 60918, this pair ranks #97,382 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of louse vs lowe

Shared letters: elo. Private to "louse": su. Private to "lowe": w.

"louse" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "lowe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lousellouse · losue · loues · lousse · luose · oluse
  • lowellowe · lowwe · lwoe · olwe

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "louse" and "lowe" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "louse" or "lowe"?
"lowe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,751 in our English list, against #47,167 for "louse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list