lorevsloutreConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#41,873
“lore” frequency rank
#32,056
“loutre” frequency rank
73929
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lore loutre
Definition Partie entre l’œil et la base du bec chez les oiseaux. Espèce de mammifère carnivore de la famille des martres, grand à peu près comme un renard, mais plus bas de pattes, et à tête plate et obtuse, semi-aquatiques, qui vit au bord des rivières.

Where the eye mixes lore and loutre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. lore runs 4 letters (CVCV) against loutre's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
lore
6 ch
loutre

Visual trap between lore and loutre

A purely visual mix-up. lore (\lɔʁ\) and loutre (\lutʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73929, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lore is recorded at frequency rank #41,873, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɔʁ\. loutre is at rank #32,056, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lutʁ\.

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 73929, this pair ranks #38,842 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lore vs loutre

Shared letters: elor. Private to "lore": -. Private to "loutre": tu.

"lore" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "loutre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lore ← llore · loer · lorre · lroe · olre
  • loutre ← lloutre · loture · lourte · louter · loutrre · louttre · luotre · olutre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lore" and "loutre" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\lɔʁ\ versus \lutʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lore" vs "loutre" - which ranks higher?
"loutre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,056 in our French list, against #41,873 for "lore". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lore" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "loutre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,842 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lore" and "loutre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs lore". 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 #38,842 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