Which to use
“cobra” and “cour” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,721
- “cobra” frequency rank
- #41,064
- “cour” frequency rank
- 55785
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cobra | cour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Any of various venomous snakes of the genus Naja. | A three-month unit of television broadcasting, corresponding to one of the four seasons. |
Where the eye mixes cobra and cour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cobra runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against cour's 4 (CVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses cobra with cour
A purely visual mix-up. cobra (/ˈkəʊbɹə/) and cour (/ˈkʊə(ɹ)/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55785, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cobra is recorded at frequency rank #14,721, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkəʊbɹə/. 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 55785, this pair ranks #130,965 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cobra vs cour
Shared letters: cor. Private to "cobra": ab. Private to "cour": u.
"cobra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "cour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cobra" and "cour" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "cobra" vs "cour" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cobra" 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 #130,965 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cobra" 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 #130,965 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.