loosvsloreWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,271
“loos” frequency rank
#41,873
“lore” frequency rank
88144
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loos lore
Definition Pluriel de loo. Partie entre l’œil et la base du bec chez les oiseaux.

Where the eye mixes loos and lore

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. loos (CVVC) and lore (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
loos
4 ch
lore

Why the eye confuses loos with lore

A purely visual mix-up. loos (\luz\) and lore (\lɔʁ\) 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 88144, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loos is recorded at frequency rank #46,271, classified as anoun, pronounced \luz\. lore is at rank #41,873, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɔʁ\.

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 88144, this pair ranks #7,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of loos vs lore

Shared letters: lo. Private to "loos": s. Private to "lore": er.

"loos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "lore" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loos ← lloos · looss · loso · olos
  • lore ← llore · loer · lorre · lroe · olre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "loos" and "lore" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\luz\ versus \lɔʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "loos" or "lore"?
"lore" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #41,873 in our French list, against #46,271 for "loos". 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 "loos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lore" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,375 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loos" and "lore" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs loos". 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 #7,375 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