coinvscoupWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“coin” and “coup” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#40,464
“coin” frequency rank
#16,671
“coup” frequency rank
57135
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coin coup
Definition Winkel, Ecke Treffen, Anschlag, Hieb, Schlag, Streich

Where the eye mixes coin and coup

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
coin
4 ch
coup

Visual trap between coin and coup

A purely visual mix-up. coin ([kwɛ̃]) and coup ([ku]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57135, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coin is recorded at frequency rank #40,464, classified as anoun, pronounced [kwɛ̃]. coup is at rank #16,671, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ku].

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 57135, this pair ranks #913,134 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coin vs coup

Shared letters: co. Private to "coin": in. Private to "coup": pu.

"coin" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "coup" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coinccoin · coinn · coni · ocin
  • coupccoup · copu · coupp · cuop · ocup

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "coin" and "coup" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([kwɛ̃] versus [ku]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "coin" or "coup"?
"coup" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,671 in our German list, against #40,464 for "coin". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "coin" and "coup" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #913,134 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coin" and "coup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs coli". 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 #913,134 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