Which to use
“coos” is a verb and “crooks” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #39,755
- “coos” frequency rank
- #21,766
- “crooks” frequency rank
- 61521
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | coos | crooks |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | third-person singular simple present indicative of coo | plural of crook |
Where the eye mixes coos and crooks
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between coos and crooks
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coos is /kuːz/ while crooks is /kɹʊks/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61521, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
coos is recorded at frequency rank #39,755, classified as averb, pronounced /kuːz/. crooks is at rank #21,766, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹʊks/.
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 61521, this pair ranks #93,777 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of coos vs crooks
Shared letters: cos. Private to "coos": -. Private to "crooks": kr.
"coos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "crooks" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "coos" for "crooks" ever safe?
Frequency check: "coos" vs "crooks" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "coos" and "crooks" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "coos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "crooks" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #93,777 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "coos" and "crooks" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coms vs coos". 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 #93,777 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.