Core or corps?
core is a noun meaning “The central part of a fruit, containing the kernels or seeds”; corps is a noun meaning “A battlefield formation composed of two or more divisions”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) core is about 2.9 times as common as corps.
What is the difference between core and corps?
| core | corps | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun, adjective, verb, suffix | noun |
| Meaning | The central part of a fruit, containing the kernels or seeds The heart or inner part of a physical thing Forming the most important or essential part | A battlefield formation composed of two or more divisions An organized group of people united by a common purpose A corps de ballet |
| Example | the core of an apple or quince | diplomatic corps |
| Forms | cores | corpses |
| Pronunciation | /kɔː/ /kɔɹ/ [kʰo̞ɹ] | not recorded |
| In writing | 54 times per million words | 19 times per million words |
Sources: core and corps in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of core and corps
core
- 1
The central part of a fruit, containing the kernels or seeds
the core of an apple or quince
- 2
Forming the most important or essential part
- 3
To remove the core of an apple or other fruit
- 4
A miner's underground working time or shift
- 5
Alternative form of cor: a former Hebrew and Phoenician unit of volume
- 6
A deposit paid by the purchaser of a rebuilt part, to be refunded on return of a used, rebuildable part, or the returned rebuildable part itself
- 7
An aesthetic ending in the suffix -core, such as cottagecore, normcore, etc
- 8
Acronym of corporate responsibility
corps
- 1
A battlefield formation composed of two or more divisions
- 2
A corps de ballet
- 3
An organized group of people united by a common purpose
diplomatic corps
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, core or corps?
core appears 54 times per million words; corps 19 times per million words.
core 54 times per million wordscorps 19 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search core vs corps?
“core vs corps” is searched about 90 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“corps vs core”, “core or corps”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.