Which to use
“cone” and “cos” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #9,153
- “cone” frequency rank
- #6,553
- “cos” frequency rank
- 15706
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cone | cos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A surface of revolution formed by rotating a segment of a line around another line that intersects the first line. | Synonym of romaine lettuce, a long-leaved variety of lettuce. |
Where the eye mixes cone and cos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between cone and cos
A purely visual mix-up. cone (/ˈkəʊn/) and cos (/kɑs/) 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 15706, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cone is recorded at frequency rank #9,153, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkəʊn/. cos is at rank #6,553, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɑs/.
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 15706, this pair ranks #462,319 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cone vs cos
Shared letters: co. Private to "cone": en. Private to "cos": s.
"cone" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "cos" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cone ← ccone · cnoe · coen · conne
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cone" for "cos" ever safe?
Which is more common, "cone" or "cos"?
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 "cone" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #462,319 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cone" and "cos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cone 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 #462,319 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.