corpsevscoupsTell them apart

Which to use

“corpse” and “coups” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,184
“corpse” frequency rank
#33,995
“coups” frequency rank
44179
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature corpse coups
Definition A dead body, especially that of a human as opposed to an animal. plural of coup

Where the eye mixes corpse and coups

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
corpse
5 ch
coups

Look-alike desk: corpse vs coups

A purely visual mix-up. corpse (/kɔːps/) and coups (/kuːz/) 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 44179, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

corpse is recorded at frequency rank #10,184, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɔːps/. coups is at rank #33,995, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kuːz/.

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 44179, this pair ranks #232,965 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of corpse vs coups

Shared letters: cops. Private to "corpse": er. Private to "coups": u.

"corpse" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "coups" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • corpseccorpse · coprse · corpes · corppse · corpsse · corrpse · corspe · cropse
  • coupsccoups · copus · coupps · coupss · cousp · cuops · ocups

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "corpse" and "coups" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kɔːps/ versus /kuːz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "corpse" vs "coups" - which ranks higher?
"corpse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,184 in our English list, against #33,995 for "coups". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "corpse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coups" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #232,965 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "corpse" and "coups" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coups vs Coutts". 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 #232,965 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