Which to use
“lotte” and “loutre” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,474
- “lotte” frequency rank
- #32,056
- “loutre” frequency rank
- 68530
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lotte | loutre |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Poisson de rivière, et des lacs européens, à plusieurs barbillons, appartenant aux gadiformes, de nom scientifique Lota lota. | 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 lotte and loutre
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses lotte with loutre
A purely visual mix-up. lotte (\lɔt\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68530, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lotte is recorded at frequency rank #36,474, classified as anoun, pronounced \lɔt\. 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 68530, this pair ranks #58,799 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of lotte vs loutre
Shared letters: elot. Private to "lotte": -. Private to "loutre": ru.
"lotte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "loutre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lotte" for "loutre" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "lotte" or "loutre" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "lotte" 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 #58,799 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lotte" and "loutre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leste vs lotte". 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 #58,799 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.