chorusvscordsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,258
“chorus” frequency rank
#18,281
“cords” frequency rank
26539
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chorus cords
Definition A group of singers and dancers in a theatrical performance or religious festival who commented on the main performance in speech or song. plural of cord

Where the eye mixes chorus and cords

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. chorus runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against cords's 5 (CVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
chorus
5 ch
cords

Visual trap between chorus and cords

A purely visual mix-up. chorus (/ˈkɔːɹəs/) and cords (/kɔːdz/) 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 26539, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chorus is recorded at frequency rank #8,258, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɔːɹəs/. cords is at rank #18,281, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɔːdz/.

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 26539, this pair ranks #385,936 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chorus vs cords

Shared letters: cors. Private to "chorus": hu. Private to "cords": d.

"chorus" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "cords" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chorus ← cchorus · chhorus · chorrus · chorsu · choruss · chours · chrous · cohrus
  • cords ← ccords · codrs · cordds · cordss · corrds · corsd · crods · ocrds

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chorus" and "cords" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkɔːɹəs/ versus /kɔːdz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "chorus" or "cords" show up more?
"chorus" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,258 in our English list, against #18,281 for "cords". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chorus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cords" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #385,936 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chorus" and "cords" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coms vs cords". 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 #385,936 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