latevslothWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: late is a noun, loth is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“late” is a noun and “loth” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,229
“late” frequency rank
#45,714
“loth” frequency rank
73943
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature late loth
Definition Latte. Variante orthographique de loath.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set late and loth apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
late
4 ch
loth

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: late is anoun and lothanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73943, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

late is recorded at frequency rank #28,229, classified as anoun, pronounced \lat\. loth is at rank #45,714, tagged as anadj.

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 73943, this pair ranks #38,803 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of late vs loth

Shared letters: lt. Private to "late": ae. Private to "loth": ho.

"late" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "loth" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • latealte · laet · llate · ltae
  • lothlloth · loht · lothh · lotth · ltoh · olth

Frequency comparison

late#28,229
loth#45,714

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "late" and "loth" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "late" is a noun and "loth" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "late" or "loth"?
"late" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,229 in our French list, against #45,714 for "loth". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering late vs loth

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “late”; for an adjective, it's “loth”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “late” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list