Which to use
“coarse” is an adjective and “coats” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,865
- “coarse” frequency rank
- #10,512
- “coats” frequency rank
- 27377
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | coarse | coats |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | With a rough texture; not smooth. | plural of coat |
Where the eye mixes coarse and coats
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. coarse runs 6 letters (CVVCCV) against coats's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: coarse vs coats
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coarse is /kɔːs/ while coats is /kəʊts/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27377, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
coarse is recorded at frequency rank #16,865, classified as anadj, pronounced /kɔːs/. coats is at rank #10,512, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kəʊts/.
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 27377, this pair ranks #379,412 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of coarse vs coats
Shared letters: acos. Private to "coarse": er. Private to "coats": t.
"coarse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "coats" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "coarse" for "coats" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "coarse" or "coats" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "coarse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #379,412 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "coarse" and "coats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coarse vs cours". 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 #379,412 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.