Which to use
“lobo” and “loco” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #49,770
- “lobo” frequency rank
- #24,272
- “loco” frequency rank
- 74042
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lobo | loco |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Loup. | Locomotive. |
Where the eye mixes lobo and loco
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lobo and loco follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between lobo and loco
A purely visual mix-up. lobo (\ˈlo.bo\) and loco (\lo.ko\) 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 a single letter - b in “lobo” becomes c in “loco”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74042, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lobo is recorded at frequency rank #49,770, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈlo.bo\. loco is at rank #24,272, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lo.ko\.
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 74042, this pair ranks #38,449 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lobo vs loco
Shared letters: lo. Private to "lobo": b. Private to "loco": c.
"lobo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "loco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lobo" and "loco" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "lobo" vs "loco" - which ranks higher?
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 "lobo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "loco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #38,449 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lobo" and "loco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs longo". 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 #38,449 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.