lobevsloosWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#22,924
“lobe” frequency rank
#46,271
“loos” frequency rank
69195
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lobe loos
Definition Division d’une partie de certains organes formée par des sillons ou des échancrures. Pluriel de loo.

Where the eye mixes lobe and loos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lobe (CVCV) and loos (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
lobe
4 ch
loos

Why the eye confuses lobe with loos

A purely visual mix-up. lobe (\lɔb\) and loos (\luz\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69195, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lobe is recorded at frequency rank #22,924, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɔb\. loos is at rank #46,271, tagged as anoun, pronounced \luz\.

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 69195, this pair ranks #56,102 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lobe vs loos

Shared letters: lo. Private to "lobe": be. Private to "loos": s.

"lobe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "loos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lobe ← lboe · llobe · lobbe · loeb · olbe
  • loos ← lloos · looss · loso · olos

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lobe" and "loos" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\lɔb\ versus \luz\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lobe" vs "loos" - which ranks higher?
"lobe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,924 in our French list, against #46,271 for "loos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lobe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,102 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lobe" and "loos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs loos". 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 #56,102 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