lochesvslopesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,430
“loches” frequency rank
#26,082
“lopes” frequency rank
73512
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loches lopes
Definition Pluriel de loche. Pluriel de lope.

Where the eye mixes loches and lopes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. loches runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against lopes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
loches
5 ch
lopes

Look-alike desk: loches vs lopes

A purely visual mix-up. loches (\lɔʃ\) and lopes (\lɔp\) 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 73512, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loches is recorded at frequency rank #47,430, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɔʃ\. lopes is at rank #26,082, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɔp\.

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 73512, this pair ranks #40,219 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of loches vs lopes

Shared letters: elos. Private to "loches": ch. Private to "lopes": p.

"loches" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "lopes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • locheslcohes · lloches · locches · locehs · lochess · lochhes · lochse · lohces
  • lopesllopes · loeps · lopess · loppes · lopse · lpoes · olpes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "loches" for "lopes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\lɔʃ\ versus \lɔp\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "loches" or "lopes"?
"lopes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,082 in our French list, against #47,430 for "loches". 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 "loches" and "lopes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "loches" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lopes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,219 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loches" and "lopes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lichens vs loches". 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 #40,219 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