CouragevscourseConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#22,671
“Courage” frequency rank
#23,880
“course” frequency rank
46551
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Courage course
Definition Gefühl, bei dem trotz gefährlicher Situation keine Angst auftritt die Richtung einer Fortbewegung

Where the eye mixes Courage and course

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
Courage
6 ch
course

Visual trap between Courage and course

A purely visual mix-up. Courage ([kuˈʁaːʒə]) and course ([kɔːs]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46551, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Courage is recorded at frequency rank #22,671, classified as anoun, pronounced [kuˈʁaːʒə]. course is at rank #23,880, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kɔːs].

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 46551, this pair ranks #1,315,181 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Courage vs course

Shared letters: ceoru. Private to "Courage": ag. Private to "course": s.

"Courage" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV  ·  "course" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Courageccourage · coruage · couarge · couraeg · couragge · courgae · courrage · cuorage
  • courseccourse · coruse · coures · courrse · coursse · cousre · cuorse · ocurse

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Courage" and "course" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([kuˈʁaːʒə] versus [kɔːs]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Courage" vs "course" - which ranks higher?
"Courage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,671 in our German list, against #23,880 for "course". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Courage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "course" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,315,181 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Courage" and "course" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "course vs curve". 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 #1,315,181 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