losevslowWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: lose is a noun, low is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“lose” is a noun and “low” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,601
“lose” frequency rank
#8,731
“low” frequency rank
43332
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lose low
Definition Variante de lauze. Bas.

Letter map: lose vs low

Shared letters muted; letters that set lose and low apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
lose
3 ch
low

Grammar separator: lose vs low

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lose is anoun and lowanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43332, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lose is recorded at frequency rank #34,601, classified as anoun. low is at rank #8,731, tagged as anadj, pronounced \loʊ\.

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 43332, this pair ranks #218,873 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lose vs low

Shared letters: lo. Private to "lose": es. Private to "low": w.

"lose" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "low" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • losellose · loes · losse · lsoe · olse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lose" and "low" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lose" is a noun and "low" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "lose" vs "low" - which ranks higher?
"low" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,731 in our French list, against #34,601 for "lose". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "lose" and "low". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lose" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "low" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #218,873 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lose" and "low" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lobo vs lose". 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 #218,873 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