Which to use
“colt” and “cour” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #13,486
- “colt” frequency rank
- #41,064
- “cour” frequency rank
- 54550
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | colt | cour |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A young male horse. | A three-month unit of television broadcasting, corresponding to one of the four seasons. |
Where the eye mixes colt and cour
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. colt (CVCC) and cour (CVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Look-alike desk: colt vs cour
A purely visual mix-up. colt (/kəʊlt/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54550, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
colt is recorded at frequency rank #13,486, classified as anoun, pronounced /kəʊlt/. 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 54550, this pair ranks #140,222 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of colt vs cour
Shared letters: co. Private to "colt": lt. Private to "cour": ru.
"colt" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "cour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "colt" and "cour" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "colt" vs "cour" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "colt" 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 #140,222 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "colt" 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 #140,222 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.