Which to use
“loco” and “loy” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #24,272
- “loco” frequency rank
- #44,027
- “loy” frequency rank
- 68299
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | loco | loy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Locomotive. | Ancienne variante orthographique de loi. |
Where the eye mixes loco and loy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. loco runs 4 letters (CVCV) against loy's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between loco and loy
A purely visual mix-up. loco (\lo.ko\) and loy (\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 68299, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
loco is recorded at frequency rank #24,272, classified as anoun, pronounced \lo.ko\. loy is at rank #44,027, 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 68299, this pair ranks #59,734 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of loco vs loy
Shared letters: lo. Private to "loco": c. Private to "loy": y.
"loco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "loy" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- loco ← lcoo · lloco · locco · looc · olco
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "loco" and "loy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "loco" vs "loy" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "loco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "loy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #59,734 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "loco" and "loy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs loy". 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 #59,734 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.