condovscordsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“condo” and “cords” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,392
“condo” frequency rank
#18,281
“cords” frequency rank
30673
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature condo cords
Definition Clipping of condominium. plural of cord

Where the eye mixes condo and cords

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
condo
5 ch
cords

Visual trap between condo and cords

A purely visual mix-up. condo (/ˈkɑndoʊ/) and cords (/kɔːdz/) 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 30673, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

condo is recorded at frequency rank #12,392, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɑndoʊ/. cords is at rank #18,281, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɔːdz/.

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 30673, this pair ranks #352,579 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of condo vs cords

Shared letters: cdo. Private to "condo": n. Private to "cords": rs.

"condo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cords" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • condoccondo · cnodo · codno · conddo · conndo · conod · ocndo
  • cordsccords · codrs · cordds · cordss · corrds · corsd · crods · ocrds

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "condo" and "cords" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkɑndoʊ/ versus /kɔːdz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "condo" or "cords"?
"condo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,392 in our English list, against #18,281 for "cords". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "condo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cords" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #352,579 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "condo" and "cords" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coms vs cords". 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 #352,579 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list