CortesvscourtesyTell them apart

Quick tell: Cortes is a name, courtesy is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Cortes” is a name and “courtesy” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,666
“Cortes” frequency rank
#5,778
“courtesy” frequency rank
41444
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Cortes courtesy
Definition A surname from Spanish, variant of Cortez Polite behavior.

Letter map: Cortes vs courtesy

Shared letters muted; letters that set Cortes and courtesy apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. Cortes runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against courtesy's 8 (CVVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
Cortes
8 ch
courtesy

Role in the sentence - Cortes and courtesy

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Cortes is aname and courtesyanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41444, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Cortes is recorded at frequency rank #35,666, classified as aname. courtesy is at rank #5,778, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɜːtəsi/.

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 41444, this pair ranks #258,339 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Cortes vs courtesy

Shared letters: ceorst. Private to "Cortes": -. Private to "courtesy": uy.

"Cortes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "courtesy" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Cortesccortes · corets · corrtes · cortess · cortse · corttes · cotres · crotes
  • courtesyccourtesy · corutesy · couretsy · courrtesy · courtessy · courtesyy · courteys · courtsey

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "Cortes" and "courtesy" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Cortes" is a name and "courtesy" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "Cortes" or "courtesy"?
"courtesy" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,778 in our English list, against #35,666 for "Cortes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pair "Cortes" vs "courtesy" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Cortes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "courtesy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #258,339 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Cortes" and "courtesy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cortes 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 #258,339 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