ClosvscoyTell them apart

Quick tell: Clos is a name, coy is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Clos” is a name and “coy” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,123
“Clos” frequency rank
#25,336
“coy” frequency rank
69459
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Clos coy
Definition A surname. Bashful, shy, retiring.

Letter map: Clos vs coy

Shared letters muted; letters that set Clos and coy apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
Clos
3 ch
coy

Grammar separator: Clos vs coy

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Clos is aname and coyanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69459, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Clos is recorded at frequency rank #44,123, classified as aname. coy is at rank #25,336, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kɔɪ/.

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 69459, this pair ranks #54,476 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Clos vs coy

Shared letters: co. Private to "Clos": ls. Private to "coy": y.

"Clos" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "coy" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Closcclos · cllos · closs · clso · lcos

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Clos" and "coy" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Clos" is a name and "coy" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Clos" or "coy"?
"coy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,336 in our English list, against #44,123 for "Clos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "Clos" vs "coy" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Clos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,476 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Clos" and "coy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Clos vs coms". 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 #54,476 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