Corps or corpse?
corps is a noun meaning “A battlefield formation composed of two or more divisions”; corpse is a noun meaning “A dead body, especially that of a human as opposed to an animal”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) corps is about 3.2 times as common as corpse.
What is the difference between corps and corpse?
| corps | corpse | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | noun | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A battlefield formation composed of two or more divisions An organized group of people united by a common purpose A corps de ballet | A dead body, especially that of a human as opposed to an animal The dead body of any animal with flesh; the dead body of a vertebrate; a carcass |
| Example | diplomatic corps | none recorded |
| Forms | corpses | corpses |
| Pronunciation | not recorded | /kɔːps/ /koɹps/ [kʰo̞ɹps] |
| In writing | 19 times per million words | 5.8 times per million words |
Sources: corps and corpse 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 corps and corpse
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
corpse
- 1
A dead body, especially that of a human as opposed to an animal
- 2
slangTo laugh uncontrollably during a performance
- 3
The dead body of any animal with flesh; the dead body of a vertebrate; a carcass
- 4
slangTo cause another actor to do this
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, corps or corpse?
corps appears 19 times per million words; corpse 5.8 times per million words.
corps 19 times per million wordscorpse 5.8 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 corps vs corpse?
“corps vs corpse” is searched about 50 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“corpse vs corps”, “corps or corpse”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.