chopvscoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,009
“chop” frequency rank
#617
“co” frequency rank
10626
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chop co
Definition A cut of meat, often containing a section of a rib. Clipping of company.

Where the eye mixes chop and co

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
chop
2 ch
co

Look-alike desk: chop vs co

A purely visual mix-up. chop (/t͡ʃɒp/) and co (/kəʊ/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10626, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chop is recorded at frequency rank #10,009, classified as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃɒp/. co is at rank #617, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kəʊ/.

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 10626, this pair ranks #491,356 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chop vs co

Shared letters: co. Private to "chop": hp. Private to "co": -.

"chop" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "co" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chopcchop · chhop · chopp · chpo · cohp · hcop

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chop" and "co" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/t͡ʃɒp/ versus /kəʊ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "chop" vs "co" - which ranks higher?
"co" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #617 in our English list, against #10,009 for "chop". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "chop" and "co" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chop" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "co" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #491,356 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chop" and "co" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chop vs Clo". 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 #491,356 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