lobevslotteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#22,924
“lobe” frequency rank
#36,474
“lotte” frequency rank
59398
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lobe lotte
Definition Division d’une partie de certains organes formée par des sillons ou des échancrures. Poisson de rivière, et des lacs européens, à plusieurs barbillons, appartenant aux gadiformes, de nom scientifique Lota lota.

Where the eye mixes lobe and lotte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lobe
5 ch
lotte

Why the eye confuses lobe with lotte

A purely visual mix-up. lobe (\lɔb\) and lotte (\lɔt\) 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 59398, 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\. lotte is at rank #36,474, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɔt\.

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 59398, this pair ranks #103,377 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lobe vs lotte

Shared letters: elo. Private to "lobe": b. Private to "lotte": t.

"lobe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lotte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lobelboe · llobe · lobbe · loeb · olbe
  • lottellotte · lote · lotet · ltote · oltte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lobe" for "lotte" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\lɔb\ versus \lɔt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lobe" vs "lotte" - which ranks higher?
"lobe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,924 in our French list, against #36,474 for "lotte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lobe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lotte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #103,377 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lobe" and "lotte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leste vs lotte". 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 #103,377 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