cawvscorpsConfusable pair

Which to use

“caw” and “corps” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,655
“caw” frequency rank
#4,517
“corps” frequency rank
53172
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caw corps
Definition The harsh cry of a crow. A battlefield formation composed of two or more divisions.

Same sound, different letters: caw vs corps

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 1 letter.

3 ch
caw
5 ch
corps

Homophone desk: caw vs corps

This is the hard kind. caw and corps are pronounced identically (/kɔː/) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53172, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caw is recorded at frequency rank #48,655, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɔː/. corps is at rank #4,517, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɔː/.

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 53172, this pair ranks #151,187 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caw vs corps

Shared letters: c. Private to "caw": aw. Private to "corps": oprs.

"caw" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "corps" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • corpsccorps · coprs · corpps · corpss · corrps · corsp · ocrps

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "caw" and "corps" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (/kɔː/), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
In ordinary English text, does "caw" or "corps" show up more?
"corps" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,517 in our English list, against #48,655 for "caw". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caw" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "corps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #151,187 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caw" and "corps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caw vs CGT". 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 #151,187 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list