Coarse or course?
coarse is an adjective meaning “With a rough texture; not smooth”; course is a noun meaning “A sequence of events”. Use coarse as an adjective and course as a noun. They sound the same (/kɔːs/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) course is about 107 times as common as coarse.
What is the difference between coarse and course?
| coarse | course | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective | noun, verb, adverb |
| Meaning | With a rough texture; not smooth Composed of large particles | A sequence of events A normal or customary sequence To run or flow (especially of liquids and more particularly blood) |
| Example | coarse sand | The normal course of events seems to be just one damned thing after another |
| Forms | coarser, coarsest | courses |
| Pronunciation | /kɔːs/ /kɔɹs/ [kʰo̞ɹs] | /kɔːs/ /kɔɹs/ /koːɹs/ |
| In writing | 2.6 times per million words | 275 times per million words |
Sources: coarse and course in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of coarse and course
coarse
- 1
With a rough texture; not smooth
- 2
Composed of large particles
coarse sand
- 3
Lacking refinement, taste or delicacy
coarse manners
- 4
Of inferior quality
Due to the internet issue, the system generated an coarse audio file
- 5
Not thin; thick
course
- 1
A sequence of events
The normal course of events seems to be just one damned thing after another
- 2
To run or flow (especially of liquids and more particularly blood)
The oil coursed through the engine
- 3
colloquialEllipsis of of course
- 4
Ellipsis of of course
- 5
A normal or customary sequence
- 6
To run through or over
- 7
A programme, a chosen manner of proceeding
Doubts arose about the expediency of such a course in the present crisis
- 8
To pursue by tracking or estimating the course taken by one's prey; to follow or chase after
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, coarse or course?
coarse appears 2.6 times per million words; course 275 times per million words.
coarse 2.6 times per million wordscourse 275 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search coarse vs course?
“coarse vs course” is searched about 1,900 times a month on Google and 70 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“course vs coarse”, “coarse or course”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.