lolovsloyWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#36,938
“lolo” frequency rank
#44,027
“loy” frequency rank
80965
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lolo loy
Definition Lait. Ancienne variante orthographique de loi.

Where the eye mixes lolo and loy

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. lolo 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.

4 ch
lolo
3 ch
loy

Look-alike desk: lolo vs loy

A purely visual mix-up. lolo (\lɔ.lo\) 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 80965, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lolo is recorded at frequency rank #36,938, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɔ.lo\. 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 80965, this pair ranks #19,758 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lolo vs loy

Shared letters: lo. Private to "lolo": -. Private to "loy": y.

"lolo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "loy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lolo ← llolo · lloo · lollo · lool · ollo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lolo" for "loy" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\lɔ.lo\ versus \lwa\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lolo" vs "loy" - which ranks higher?
"lolo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,938 in our French list, against #44,027 for "loy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lolo" 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 #19,758 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lolo" 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 #19,758 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