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louche

French, noun

louche is spelled L-O-U-C-H-E (6 letters) and appears 5.0 times per million words in written French, the 11,195th most frequent French word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Louche is a French masculine noun meaning “cloudiness due to a suspension of fine particles” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive of loucher. With an accent, louché is a different word: “past participle of loucher”. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Quelque chose de suspect”.

What does louche mean in English?

adjective

  1. 1

    datedcross-eyed

  2. 2

    cloudy; obscure

  3. 3

    shady; dubious; seedy; shifty

noun

  1. 1

    masculinecloudiness due to a suspension of fine particles

noun

  1. 1

    feminineladle

verb

  1. 1

    first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive

  2. 2

    second-person singular imperative

verb

as louché
  1. 1

    past participle of loucher

Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How French dictionaries define it

adjective: 1. Dont les yeux ont une direction différente. 2. Se dit des yeux mêmes et du regard. 3. Trouble. Qui n’est pas clair, net, transparent. 4. Suspect, équivoque.

noun: 1. Quelque chose de suspect. 2. (vieilli) Personne qui louche. 3. Précipité en suspension dans un liquide.

noun: 1. Ustensile de cuisine et de table à cuilleron demi-sphérique et à long manche utilisé en particulier pour servir le potage. 2. Main.

The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.

Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of louche

  • louches plural
  • louchée feminine
  • louchés masculine plural
  • louchées feminine plural

Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to louche

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is louche in French?

louche appears 5.0 times per million words in written French.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

What to look up after louche