Which to use
“loches” and “louches” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,430
- “loches” frequency rank
- #29,026
- “louches” frequency rank
- 76456
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | loches | louches |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de loche. | Pluriel de louche. |
Where the eye mixes loches and louches
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. loches runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against louches's 7 (CVVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: loches vs louches
A purely visual mix-up. loches (\lɔʃ\) and louches (\luʃ\) 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 76456, 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\. louches is at rank #29,026, tagged as anoun, pronounced \luʃ\.
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 76456, this pair ranks #31,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of loches vs louches
Shared letters: cehlos. Private to "loches": -. Private to "louches": u.
"loches" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "louches" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "loches" and "louches" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "loches" vs "louches" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "loches" and "louches" 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 "louches" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #31,104 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "loches" and "louches" 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 #31,104 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.