Which to use
“lopes” and “lupus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #26,082
- “lopes” frequency rank
- #28,636
- “lupus” frequency rank
- 54718
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lopes | lupus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de lope. | Lupus érythémateux (maladie auto-immune). |
Where the eye mixes lopes and lupus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lopes and lupus follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between lopes and lupus
A purely visual mix-up. lopes (\lɔp\) and lupus (\ly.pys\) 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 54718, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lopes is recorded at frequency rank #26,082, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɔp\. lupus is at rank #28,636, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ly.pys\.
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 54718, this pair ranks #132,135 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lopes vs lupus
Shared letters: lps. Private to "lopes": eo. Private to "lupus": u.
"lopes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "lupus" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lopes" for "lupus" ever safe?
Frequency check: "lopes" vs "lupus" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "lopes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lupus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #132,135 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lopes" and "lupus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lips vs lupus". 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 #132,135 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.