LobvslocaConfusable pair

Which to use

“Lob” and “loca” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#43,529
“Lob” frequency rank
#43,530
“loca” frequency rank
87059
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Lob loca
Definition Éloge, compliment, félicitations, louange. Folle, femme atteinte de folie.

Where the eye mixes Lob and loca

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Lob runs 3 letters (CVC) against loca's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
Lob
4 ch
loca

Why the eye confuses Lob with loca

A purely visual mix-up. Lob (\loːp\) and loca (\ˈlo.ka\) 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 87059, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Lob is recorded at frequency rank #43,529, classified as anoun, pronounced \loːp\. loca is at rank #43,530, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈlo.ka\.

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 87059, this pair ranks #8,828 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Lob vs loca

Shared letters: lo. Private to "Lob": b. Private to "loca": ac.

"Lob" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "loca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loca ← lcoa · lloca · loac · locca · olca

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Lob" and "loca" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\loːp\ versus \ˈlo.ka\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "Lob" or "loca" show up more?
"Lob" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,529 in our French list, against #43,530 for "loca". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "Lob" and "loca" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Lob" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loca" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,828 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Lob" and "loca" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs loca". 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 #8,828 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