Which to use
“lady” and “loy” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,576
- “lady” frequency rank
- #44,027
- “loy” frequency rank
- 49603
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lady | loy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Titre qui appartient en Angleterre à l’épouse d’un lord ou d’un chevalier, et que l’on donne aussi, par courtoisie, aux filles des lords en y joignant les noms de baptême. | Ancienne variante orthographique de loi. |
Where the eye mixes lady and loy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lady runs 4 letters (CVCV) against loy's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: lady vs loy
A purely visual mix-up. lady (\le.di\) and loy (\lwa\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49603, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lady is recorded at frequency rank #5,576, classified as anoun, pronounced \le.di\. loy is at rank #44,027, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lwa\.
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 49603, this pair ranks #169,285 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lady vs loy
Shared letters: ly. Private to "lady": ad. Private to "loy": o.
"lady" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "loy" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- lady ← aldy · laddy · ladyy · layd · lday · llady
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "lady" and "loy" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary French text, does "lady" or "loy" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "lady" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "loy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #169,285 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lady" and "loy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs loy". 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 #169,285 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.