Which to use
“lavée” is an adjective and “louée” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #36,469
- “lavée” frequency rank
- #25,724
- “louée” frequency rank
- 62193
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lavée | louée |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Féminin singulier de lavé. | Pratique traditionnelle au cours de laquelle les domestiques proposaient leurs services. Cet usage avait lieu à la Saint-Jean (24 juin) pour les travaux des champs et à la Saint-Martin (11 novembre) pour les travaux d'hiver et de printemps. |
Where the eye mixes lavée and louée
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses lavée with louée
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lavée is \la.ve\ while louée is \lu.e\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62193, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lavée is recorded at frequency rank #36,469, classified as anadj, pronounced \la.ve\. louée is at rank #25,724, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lu.e\.
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 62193, this pair ranks #88,361 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lavée vs louée
Shared letters: elé. Private to "lavée": av. Private to "louée": ou.
"lavée" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "louée" · 5 letters · shape CVVVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lavée" for "louée" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lavée" vs "louée" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "lavée" and "louée" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lavée" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "louée" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #88,361 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lavée" and "louée" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Lacey vs lavée". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #88,361 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.