consvscordConfusable pair

Quick tell: cons is a verb, cord is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cons” is a verb and “cord” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,090
“cons” frequency rank
#36,862
“cord” frequency rank
79952
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cons cord
Definition 3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs con längliches aus etwas zusammengedrehtes Ding, das beispielsweise als Gürtel getragen wird

Letter map: cons vs cord

Shared letters muted; letters that set cons and cord apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
cons
4 ch
cord

Part-of-speech tell for cons / cord

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cons is averb and cordanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79952, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cons is recorded at frequency rank #43,090, classified as averb, pronounced […]. cord is at rank #36,862, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kɔː(r)d].

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 79952, this pair ranks #205,645 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cons vs cord

Shared letters: co. Private to "cons": ns. Private to "cord": dr.

"cons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "cord" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • consccons · cnos · conns · conss · cosn · ocns
  • cordccord · codr · cordd · corrd · crod · ocrd

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cons" for "cord" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cons" is a verb and "cord" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cons" or "cord"?
"cord" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,862 in our German list, against #43,090 for "cons". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "cons" vs "cord" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cons" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cord" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #205,645 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cons" and "cord" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cons 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 #205,645 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