Which to use
“Littré” is a name and “loutre” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,015
- “Littré” frequency rank
- #32,056
- “loutre” frequency rank
- 80071
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Littré | loutre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Nom de famille français, rendu célèbre par Émile Littré, lexicographe du dix-neuvième siècle. | Espèce de mammifère carnivore de la famille des martres, grand à peu près comme un renard, mais plus bas de pattes, et à tête plate et obtuse, semi-aquatiques, qui vit au bord des rivières. |
Where the eye mixes Littré and loutre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. Littré (CVCCCV) and loutre (CVVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses Littré with loutre
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Littré is \li.tʁe\ while loutre is \lutʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80071, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Littré is recorded at frequency rank #48,015, classified as aname, pronounced \li.tʁe\. loutre is at rank #32,056, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lutʁ\.
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 80071, this pair ranks #21,798 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of Littré vs loutre
Shared letters: lrt. Private to "Littré": ié. Private to "loutre": eou.
"Littré" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV · "loutre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- loutre ← lloutre · loture · lourte · louter · loutrre · louttre · luotre · olutre
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "Littré" for "loutre" ever safe?
Frequency check: "Littré" vs "loutre" - 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 "Littré" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "loutre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #21,798 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Littré" and "loutre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ligure vs Littré". 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 #21,798 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.