clouvscosTell them apart

Quick tell: clou is a noun, cos is an abbrev, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“clou” is a noun and “cos” is an abbrev - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#39,272
“clou” frequency rank
#29,065
“cos” frequency rank
68337
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clou cos
Definition Nagel Kosinus

Letter map: clou vs cos

Shared letters muted; letters that set clou and cos apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. clou runs 4 letters (CCVV) against cos's 3 (CVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
clou
3 ch
cos

Grammar separator: clou vs cos

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: clou is anoun and cosanabbrev. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68337, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clou is recorded at frequency rank #39,272, classified as anoun, pronounced [klu]. cos is at rank #29,065, tagged as anabbrev.

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 68337, this pair ranks #511,037 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of clou vs cos

Shared letters: co. Private to "clou": lu. Private to "cos": s.

"clou" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "cos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • clou ← cclou · cllou · cluo · colu · lcou

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "clou" and "cos" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "clou" is a noun and "cos" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "clou" vs "cos" - which ranks higher?
"cos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,065 in our German list, against #39,272 for "clou". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "clou" and "cos".

  • Full dictionary entry for "clou" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #511,037 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clou" and "cos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clock vs clou". 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 #511,037 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list