contvscountsWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cont is a verb, counts is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cont” is a verb and “counts” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#20,320
“cont” frequency rank
#4,436
“counts” frequency rank
24756
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cont counts
Definition Abbreviation of continue. plural of count

Letter map: cont vs counts

Shared letters muted; letters that set cont and counts apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

4 ch
cont
6 ch
counts

Role in the sentence - cont and counts

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cont is averb and countsanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24756, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cont is recorded at frequency rank #20,320, classified as averb. counts is at rank #4,436, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kaʊnts/.

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 24756, this pair ranks #399,558 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cont vs counts

Shared letters: cnot. Private to "cont": -. Private to "counts": su.

"cont" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "counts" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contccont · cnot · connt · contt · cotn · ocnt
  • countsccounts · conuts · counnts · counst · countss · countts · coutns · cuonts

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cont" and "counts" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cont" is a verb and "counts" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "cont" or "counts" show up more?
"counts" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,436 in our English list, against #20,320 for "cont". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "cont" and "counts".

  • Full dictionary entry for "cont" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "counts" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #399,558 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cont" and "counts" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cont vs Croat". 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 #399,558 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