English homophones
coz/cuz
"coz" is a noun; "cuz" is an adverb - grammar picks the spelling, not sound. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.
Data vintage
Grammar picks the spelling
Same sound, different grammar: "coz" arrives as a noun, while "cuz" is an adverb. Once the sentence role is fixed, only one spelling fits.
Spelling pairs in this cluster
- No shared spelling stem: "coz" is 3 letters, "cuz" is 3; only the sound ties them.
Orthographic DNA of this cluster
Shared letters across coz, cuz: cz. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.
coz
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory coz · private o
cuz
3 letters · 1 vowels · shape CVC
Inventory cuz · private u
Pick the spelling from the meaning
- Write "coz" when you mean: cousin (usually as a term of address)
- Write "cuz" when you mean: Informal spelling of 'cause (“because”).
Each spelling
Nearby English homophone groups
What to do next
You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (coz, cuz). Here's where to go from here.
- "cuz" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #8,407 in English). Full entry
- Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 2 spellings ranks #133 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
- Explore a nearby 2-spelling cluster: countrymen · countryman. Nearby cluster
- Grammar often disambiguates this cluster, match the meaning to the part of speech before picking a spelling. Pick by meaning
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.