Which to use
“coax” is a verb and “cour” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #30,368
- “coax” frequency rank
- #41,064
- “cour” frequency rank
- 71432
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | coax | cour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To fondle, kid, pet, tease. | A three-month unit of television broadcasting, corresponding to one of the four seasons. |
Where the eye mixes coax and cour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses coax with cour
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coax is /kəʊks/ while cour is /ˈkʊə(ɹ)/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71432, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
coax is recorded at frequency rank #30,368, classified as averb, pronounced /kəʊks/. cour is at rank #41,064, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkʊə(ɹ)/.
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 71432, this pair ranks #46,747 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of coax vs cour
Shared letters: co. Private to "coax": ax. Private to "cour": ru.
"coax" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "cour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "coax" and "cour" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "coax" or "cour" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "coax" and "cour" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "coax" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cour" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #46,747 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "coax" and "cour" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cour vs cower". 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 #46,747 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.