loquevslotteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#46,272
“loque” frequency rank
#36,474
“lotte” frequency rank
82746
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loque lotte
Definition Étoffe réduite en lambeaux par suite de l’usure. Poisson de rivière, et des lacs européens, à plusieurs barbillons, appartenant aux gadiformes, de nom scientifique Lota lota.

Where the eye mixes loque and lotte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. loque (CVCVV) and lotte (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
loque
5 ch
lotte

Why the eye confuses loque with lotte

A purely visual mix-up. loque (\lɔk\) and lotte (\lɔt\) 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 82746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

loque is recorded at frequency rank #46,272, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɔk\. lotte is at rank #36,474, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lɔt\.

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 82746, this pair ranks #16,114 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of loque vs lotte

Shared letters: elo. Private to "loque": qu. Private to "lotte": t.

"loque" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "lotte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loque ← lloque · loqeu · loqque · louqe · lqoue · olque
  • lotte ← llotte · lote · lotet · ltote · oltte

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "loque" and "lotte" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\lɔk\ versus \lɔt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "loque" or "lotte" show up more?
"lotte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,474 in our French list, against #46,272 for "loque". 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 "loque" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lotte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,114 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loque" and "lotte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Laroque vs loque". 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 #16,114 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