Which to use
“labo” and “lobo” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,609
- “labo” frequency rank
- #49,770
- “lobo” frequency rank
- 62379
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | labo | lobo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Laboratoire. | Loup. |
Where the eye mixes labo and lobo
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. labo and lobo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between labo and lobo
A purely visual mix-up. labo (\la.bo\) and lobo (\ˈlo.bo\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “labo” becomes o in “lobo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62379, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
labo is recorded at frequency rank #12,609, classified as anoun, pronounced \la.bo\. lobo is at rank #49,770, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈlo.bo\.
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 62379, this pair ranks #87,437 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of labo vs lobo
Shared letters: blo. Private to "labo": a. Private to "lobo": -.
"labo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lobo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "labo" for "lobo" ever safe?
Frequency check: "labo" vs "lobo" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "labo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lobo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #87,437 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "labo" and "lobo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs longo". 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 #87,437 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.