colivscosWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#47,301
“coli” frequency rank
#29,065
“cos” frequency rank
76366
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coli cos
Definition Genitiv Singular des Substantivs cola Kosinus

Letter map: coli vs cos

Shared letters muted; letters that set coli and cos apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
coli
3 ch
cos

Grammar separator: coli vs cos

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: coli is anoun and cosanabbrev. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76366, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coli is recorded at frequency rank #47,301, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. 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 76366, this pair ranks #285,552 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of coli vs cos

Shared letters: co. Private to "coli": il. Private to "cos": s.

"coli" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cos" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coliccoli · cloi · coil · colli · ocli

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "coli" and "cos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "coli" is a noun and "cos" an abbrev, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "coli" or "cos"?
"cos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,065 in our German list, against #47,301 for "coli". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "coli" vs "cos" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coli" 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 #285,552 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coli" and "cos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coli 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 #285,552 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