core vs cos, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#15,059
“core” frequency rank: #29,065
“cos” frequency rank: 44124
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	core	cos
Definition	Kern	Kosinus

Letter map: core vs cos

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

4 ch

core

3 ch

cos

Role in the sentence - core and cos

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: core is anoun and cosanabbrev. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44124, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

core is recorded at frequency rank #15,059, 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 44124, this pair ranks #1,396,272 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of core vs cos

Shared letters: co. Private to "core": er. Private to "cos": s.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

core ← ccore · coer · corre · croe · ocre

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

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

"core" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,059 in our German list, against #29,065 for "cos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "core" and "cos". Here's where to go from here.

Full dictionary entry for "core" 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 #1,396,272 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"core" and "cos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCS vs cos". 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 #1,396,272 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.