loir

\lwaʁ\

/\lwaʁ\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“loir” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #14,502) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#14,502
frequency rank, French
2,567
“L” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Petit mammifère de la famille des gliridés ou myoxidés, sous-ordre des myomorphes, ordre des rongeurs vrais ; il en existe plusieurs espèces en Europe, en Asie et en Afrique.

Corpus desk

Index FR-loir · loir · French

loir · rank #14,502 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #14,502
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,567
  • PHOTO-FINISH luxembourgeois

Nearest frequency peer: luxembourgeois (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « loir »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « loir » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

loir vs LR
0% similar
loir vs lui
50% similar
loir vs lol
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for loir
PropertyValue
Headwordloir
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\lwaʁ\
Letters4
Frequency rank#14,502
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « loir »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).loirse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « luxembourgeois » (#14,503), « Leslie » (#14,500), « mag » (#14,504). Parmi 2,567 lemmes en « L », « loir » est au #14,502. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for loir is neighbouring look-alikes ("LR", "lui", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \lwaʁ\. Frequency #14,502 among 2,567 “L” headwords. Gloss: "Petit mammifère de la famille des gliridés ou myoxidés, sous-ordre des myomorphes, ordre des rongeurs vrais ; il en existe plusieurs espèces en Europe, en Asie et en Afrique.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for loir, with forms such as "lior", "lloir", and "loirr". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "LR", "lui", "lol", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct French form is loir, spelled L-O-I-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    Petit mammifère de la famille des gliridés ou myoxidés, sous-ordre des myomorphes, ordre des rongeurs vrais ; il en existe plusieurs espèces en Europe, en Asie et en Afrique.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how loir appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Tout à coup, dans le grenier, les loirs commencèrent une sarabande, qui se termina par une bagarre, avec des bonds et des cris pointus. Puis, le silence se fit.
  2. Il faut donc conclure qu’à l’instar de l’ours, du loir et de la marmotte, Gaston hiberne!

This word in other languages

dormouse(English)lirón(Español)Siebenschläfer(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • lior
  • lloir
  • loirr
  • olir

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of loir - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

lior2lloir1loirr1olir2
Edit distance from "loir"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "loir"?
"loir" is spelled L-O-I-R. The IPA pronunciation is \lwaʁ\.
What does "loir" mean?
As a noun, "loir" means: Petit mammifère de la famille des gliridés ou myoxidés, sous-ordre des myomorphes, ordre des rongeurs vrais ; il en existe plusieurs espèces en Europe, en Asie et en Afrique.
What words are commonly confused with "loir"?
"loir" is commonly confused with "LR", "lui", "lol". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "loir"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "loir" is \lwaʁ\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "loir" come from?
"loir" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "loir", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

lane#14,498Joly#14,495mimi#14,512otto#14,527

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list