Which to use
“cocks” and “cons” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #15,780
- “cocks” frequency rank
- #10,183
- “cons” frequency rank
- 25963
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cocks | cons |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of cock | A data structure in Lisp that is a pair of pointers, car and cdr, used mainly for lists. |
Where the eye mixes cocks and cons
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: cocks vs cons
A purely visual mix-up. cocks (/kɒks/) and cons (/ˈkɑnz/) 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 25963, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cocks is recorded at frequency rank #15,780, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɒks/. cons is at rank #10,183, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɑnz/.
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 25963, this pair ranks #390,260 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cocks vs cons
Shared letters: cos. Private to "cocks": k. Private to "cons": n.
"cocks" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "cons" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cocks" for "cons" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "cocks" or "cons" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "cocks" and "cons" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cocks" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cons" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #390,260 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cocks" and "cons" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cocks vs coms". 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 #390,260 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.