cost vs coup, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“cost” and “coup” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#27,668
“cost” frequency rank: #16,671
“coup” frequency rank: 44339
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cost	coup
Definition	Kosten	Treffen, Anschlag, Hieb, Schlag, Streich

Letter map: cost vs coup

Shared letters muted; letters that set cost and coup apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch

cost

4 ch

coup

Corpus notes: cost and coup

cost and coup are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44339, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cost is recorded at frequency rank #27,668, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. coup is at rank #16,671, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ku].

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 44339, this pair ranks #1,389,406 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cost vs coup

Shared letters: co. Private to "cost": st. Private to "coup": pu.

"cost" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "coup" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

cost ← ccost · cosst · costt · cots · csot · ocst
coup ← ccoup · copu · coupp · cuop · ocup

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cost" for "coup" ever safe?

No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Frequency check: "cost" vs "coup" - which ranks higher?

"coup" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,671 in our German list, against #27,668 for "cost". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "cost" and "coup".

Full dictionary entry for "cost" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "coup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,389,406 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"cost" and "coup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cost 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 #1,389,406 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.