coldvscopyWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cold is a adjective, copy is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#18,848
“cold” frequency rank
#25,499
“copy” frequency rank
44347
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cold copy
Definition kalt Nachbildung eines Bildes oder eines Textes; Kopie

Letter map: cold vs copy

Shared letters muted; letters that set cold and copy apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
cold
4 ch
copy

Grammar separator: cold vs copy

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cold is anadjective and copyanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44347, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cold is recorded at frequency rank #18,848, classified as anadj, pronounced [kəʊld]. copy is at rank #25,499, tagged as anoun, pronounced […].

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 44347, this pair ranks #1,389,151 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cold vs copy

Shared letters: co. Private to "cold": dl. Private to "copy": py.

"cold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "copy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coldccold · clod · codl · coldd · colld · ocld
  • copyccopy · coppy · copyy · coyp · cpoy · ocpy

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cold" and "copy" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cold" is an adjective and "copy" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cold" vs "copy" - which ranks higher?
"cold" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,848 in our German list, against #25,499 for "copy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "cold" and "copy".

  • Full dictionary entry for "cold" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "copy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,389,151 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cold" and "copy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "copy vs puzzles". 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 #1,389,151 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