ClovscoosConfusable pair

Quick tell: Clo is a noun, coos is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Clo” is a noun and “coos” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,144
“Clo” frequency rank
#39,755
“coos” frequency rank
87899
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Clo coos
Definition Abbreviation of close (in street addresses). third-person singular simple present indicative of coo

Letter map: Clo vs coos

Shared letters muted; letters that set Clo and coos apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. Clo runs 3 letters (CCV) against coos's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
Clo
4 ch
coos

Grammar separator: Clo vs coos

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Clo is anoun and coosaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 87899, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Clo is recorded at frequency rank #48,144, classified as anoun. coos is at rank #39,755, tagged as averb, pronounced /kuːz/.

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 87899, this pair ranks #7,018 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Clo vs coos

Shared letters: co. Private to "Clo": l. Private to "coos": s.

"Clo" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "coos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coos ← ccoos · cooss · coso · ocos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Clo" for "coos" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Clo" is a noun and "coos" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Clo" or "coos"?
"coos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,755 in our English list, against #48,144 for "Clo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "Clo" and "coos".

  • Full dictionary entry for "Clo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,018 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Clo" and "coos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CGT 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 #7,018 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