loquevslouveTell them apart

Which to use

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

#46,272
“loque” frequency rank
#27,509
“louve” frequency rank
73781
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature loque louve
Definition Étoffe réduite en lambeaux par suite de l’usure. Loup femelle.

Where the eye mixes loque and louve

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. loque (CVCVV) and louve (CVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
loque
5 ch
louve

Visual trap between loque and louve

A purely visual mix-up. loque (\lɔk\) and louve (\luv\) 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 73781, 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\. louve is at rank #27,509, tagged as anoun, pronounced \luv\.

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 73781, this pair ranks #39,265 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of loque vs louve

Shared letters: elou. Private to "loque": q. Private to "louve": v.

"loque" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "louve" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loque ← lloque · loqeu · loqque · louqe · lqoue · olque
  • louve ← llouve · louev · louvve · lovue · luove · oluve

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "loque" for "louve" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\lɔk\ versus \luv\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "loque" or "louve"?
"louve" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,509 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.

After this comparison

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 "louve" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,265 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "loque" and "louve" 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 #39,265 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