Which to use
“costs” and “cours” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,163
- “costs” frequency rank
- #47,550
- “cours” frequency rank
- 48713
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | costs | cours |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of cost | three-month unit of television broadcasting corresponding to a natural season. |
Letter map: costs vs cours
Shared letters muted; letters that set costs and cours apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. costs (CVCCC) and cours (CVVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Pair insight - costs / cours
costs and cours are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48713, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
costs is recorded at frequency rank #1,163, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɔsts/. cours is at rank #47,550, tagged as anoun.
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 48713, this pair ranks #190,449 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of costs vs cours
Shared letters: cos. Private to "costs": t. Private to "cours": ru.
"costs" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "cours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "costs" and "cours" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "costs" vs "cours" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "costs" and "cours".
- Full dictionary entry for "costs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cours" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #190,449 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "costs" and "cours" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cours 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 #190,449 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.