losevslueConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#34,601
“lose” frequency rank
#16,669
“lue” frequency rank
51270
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lose lue
Definition Variante de lauze. Féminin singulier de lu.

Letter map: lose vs lue

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

4 ch
lose
3 ch
lue

Role in the sentence - lose and lue

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: lose is anoun and lueanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51270, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lose is recorded at frequency rank #34,601, classified as anoun. lue is at rank #16,669, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ly\.

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 51270, this pair ranks #156,299 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lose vs lue

Shared letters: el. Private to "lose": os. Private to "lue": u.

"lose" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lue" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • losellose · loes · losse · lsoe · olse

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lose" for "lue" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lose" is a noun and "lue" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "lose" or "lue" show up more?
"lue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,669 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 "lue". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lose" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #156,299 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lose" and "lue" 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 #156,299 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