Which to use
“loutre” and “lure” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,056
- “loutre” frequency rank
- #48,019
- “lure” frequency rank
- 80075
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | loutre | lure |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | Leurre. |
Where the eye mixes loutre and lure
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. loutre runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against lure's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses loutre with lure
A purely visual mix-up. loutre (\lutʁ\) and lure (\lʊər\) 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 80075, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
loutre is recorded at frequency rank #32,056, classified as anoun, pronounced \lutʁ\. lure is at rank #48,019, tagged as anoun, pronounced \lʊər\.
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 80075, this pair ranks #21,788 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of loutre vs lure
Shared letters: elru. Private to "loutre": ot. Private to "lure": -.
"loutre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "lure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "loutre" and "lure" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "loutre" or "lure" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "loutre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #21,788 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "loutre" and "lure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lar vs lure". 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 #21,788 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.