lobovsloiWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#49,770
“lobo” frequency rank
#300
“loi” frequency rank
50070
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lobo loi
Definition Loup. Règle, obligations écrites, prescrites ou tacites, auxquelles les personnes se doivent de se conformer.

Where the eye mixes lobo and loi

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
lobo
3 ch
loi

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. lobo (\ˈlo.bo\) and loi (\lwa\) 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 50070, 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\. loi is at rank #300, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lwa\.

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 50070, this pair ranks #165,552 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lobo vs loi

Shared letters: lo. Private to "lobo": b. Private to "loi": i.

"lobo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "loi" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lobolboo · llobo · lobbo · loob · olbo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "lobo" and "loi" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈlo.bo\ versus \lwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "lobo" or "loi"?
"loi" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #300 in our French list, against #49,770 for "lobo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list