lochesvslycéesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,430
“loches” frequency rank
#8,419
“lycées” frequency rank
55849
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loches lycées
Definition Pluriel de loche. Pluriel de lycée.

Where the eye mixes loches and lycées

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. loches (CVCCVC) and lycées (CVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
loches
6 ch
lycées

Look-alike desk: loches vs lycées

A purely visual mix-up. loches (\lɔʃ\) and lycées (\li.se\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55849, 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\. lycées is at rank #8,419, tagged as anoun, pronounced \li.se\.

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 55849, this pair ranks #124,824 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of loches vs lycées

Shared letters: cels. Private to "loches": ho. Private to "lycées": yé.

"loches" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "lycées" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loches ← lcohes · lloches · locches · locehs · lochess · lochhes · lochse · lohces

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "loches" and "lycées" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\lɔʃ\ versus \li.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "loches" or "lycées"?
"lycées" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,419 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

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "loches" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lycées" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #124,824 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loches" and "lycées" 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 #124,824 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