cops vs core, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#13,118
“cops” frequency rank: #15,059
“core” frequency rank: 28177
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cops	core
Definition	3. Person Singular Indikativ Präsens Aktiv des Verbs cop	Kern

Letter map: cops vs core

Shared letters muted; letters that set cops and core apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch

cops

4 ch

core

Grammar separator: cops vs core

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cops is averb and coreanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28177, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cops is recorded at frequency rank #13,118, classified as averb, pronounced […]. core is at rank #15,059, 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 28177, this pair ranks #1,789,244 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cops vs core

Shared letters: co. Private to "cops": ps. Private to "core": er.

"cops" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "core" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

cops ← ccops · copps · copss · cosp · cpos · ocps
core ← ccore · coer · corre · croe · ocre

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cops" for "core" ever safe?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cops" is a verb and "core" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

In ordinary German text, does "cops" or "core" show up more?

"cops" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,118 in our German list, against #15,059 for "core". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "cops" vs "core" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

Full dictionary entry for "cops" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "core" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,789,244 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"cops" and "core" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "core 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 #1,789,244 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.