Which to use
“causing” is a verb and “cousins” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #2,823
- “causing” frequency rank
- #7,669
- “cousins” frequency rank
- 10492
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | causing | cousins |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | present participle and gerund of cause | The American intelligence services (from a British perspective) or the British intelligence services (from an American perspective). |
Where the eye mixes causing and cousins
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between causing and cousins
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: causing is /ˈkɔːzɪŋ/ while cousins is /ˈkʌzn̩s/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
causing is recorded at frequency rank #2,823, classified as averb, pronounced /ˈkɔːzɪŋ/. cousins is at rank #7,669, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkʌzn̩s/.
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 10492, this pair ranks #492,046 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of causing vs cousins
Shared letters: cinsu. Private to "causing": ag. Private to "cousins": o.
"causing" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC · "cousins" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "causing" and "cousins" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "causing" vs "cousins" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "causing" and "cousins" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "causing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cousins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #492,046 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "causing" and "cousins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coursing vs cousins". 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 #492,046 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.