Which to use
“coarse” is an adjective and “corpse” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,865
- “coarse” frequency rank
- #10,184
- “corpse” frequency rank
- 27049
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | coarse | corpse |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | With a rough texture; not smooth. | A dead body, especially that of a human as opposed to an animal. |
Where the eye mixes coarse and corpse
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: coarse vs corpse
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coarse is /kɔːs/ while corpse is /kɔːps/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27049, 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/. corpse is at rank #10,184, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɔːps/.
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 27049, this pair ranks #382,051 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of coarse vs corpse
Shared letters: ceors. Private to "coarse": a. Private to "corpse": p.
"coarse" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "corpse" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "coarse" and "corpse" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "coarse" or "corpse"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "coarse" and "corpse" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "coarse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "corpse" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #382,051 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "coarse" and "corpse" 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 #382,051 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.