LaosvsloseWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#20,349
“Laos” frequency rank
#27,921
“lose” frequency rank
48270
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Laos lose
Definition Laos frouxo

Letter map: Laos vs lose

Shared letters muted; letters that set Laos and lose apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. Laos (CVVC) and lose (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
Laos
4 ch
lose

Part-of-speech tell for Laos / lose

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Laos is anoun and loseanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48270, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Laos is recorded at frequency rank #20,349, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlaʊs/,/ˈlɑːoʊs/. lose is at rank #27,921, tagged as anadj.

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 48270, this pair ranks #16,914 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Laos vs lose

Shared letters: los. Private to "Laos": a. Private to "lose": e.

"Laos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "lose" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Laos ← laoss · llaos · loas
  • lose ← llose · loes · losse · lsoe · olse

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Laos" and "lose" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Laos" is a noun and "lose" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "Laos" or "lose" show up more?
"Laos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,349 in our Portuguese list, against #27,921 for "lose". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Laos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lose" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,914 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Laos" and "lose" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loch 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 #16,914 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list