larvsloirWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: lar is a adverb, loir is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lar” is an adverb and “loir” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,637
“lar” frequency rank
#14,502
“loir” frequency rank
63139
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lar loir
Definition Trop. 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.

Letter map: lar vs loir

Shared letters muted; letters that set lar and loir apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
lar
4 ch
loir

Grammar separator: lar vs loir

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lar is anadverb and loiranoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63139, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lar is recorded at frequency rank #48,637, classified as anadv. loir is at rank #14,502, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lwaʁ\.

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 63139, this pair ranks #83,546 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lar vs loir

Shared letters: lr. Private to "lar": a. Private to "loir": io.

"lar" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "loir" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loirlior · lloir · loirr · olir

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lar" and "loir" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lar" is an adverb and "loir" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lar" or "loir"?
"loir" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,502 in our French list, against #48,637 for "lar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "lar" and "loir". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loir" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #83,546 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lar" and "loir" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lar vs lep". 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 #83,546 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list