locusvsloisTell them apart

Which to use

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

#42,439
“locus” frequency rank
#1,296
“lois” frequency rank
43735
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature locus lois
Definition Emplacement d’un gène sur un chromosome. Pluriel de loi.

Where the eye mixes locus and lois

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
locus
4 ch
lois

Look-alike desk: locus vs lois

A purely visual mix-up. locus (\lɔ.kys\) and lois (\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 43735, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

locus is recorded at frequency rank #42,439, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɔ.kys\. lois is at rank #1,296, 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 43735, this pair ranks #215,826 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of locus vs lois

Shared letters: los. Private to "locus": cu. Private to "lois": i.

"locus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "lois" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • locusllocus · loccus · locsu · locuss · loucs · olcus
  • loislios · llois · loiss · losi · olis

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "locus" and "lois" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\lɔ.kys\ versus \lwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "locus" vs "lois" - which ranks higher?
"lois" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,296 in our French list, against #42,439 for "locus". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "locus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lois" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #215,826 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "locus" and "lois" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "locus vs logs". 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 #215,826 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