Cosy or cozy?
In American English write cozy; in British and Commonwealth English, cosy. cosy is an adjective meaning “Affording comfort and warmth; snug; social and comfortable”; cozy is an adjective meaning “US standard spelling of cosy”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) cozy is about 2.1 times as common as cosy.
What is the difference between cosy and cozy?
| cosy | cozy | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun, verb | adjective, noun, verb |
| Meaning | UKAffording comfort and warmth; snug; social and comfortable UKWarm and comfortable UKA padded or knit covering put on an item to keep it warm, especially a teapot or egg | USUS standard spelling of cosy |
| Example | I feel very cosy here in my bed | none recorded |
| Forms | cosier, cosiest | cozier, coziest |
| Pronunciation | /ˈkəʊzi/ /ˈkoʊzi/ | not recorded |
| Region | UK | US |
| In writing | 2.0 times per million words | 4.4 times per million words |
Sources: cosy and cozy 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 cosy and cozy
cosy
- 1
UKAffording comfort and warmth; snug; social and comfortable
- 2
UKA padded or knit covering put on an item to keep it warm, especially a teapot or egg
- 3
UKTo become snug and comfortable
- 4
UKWarm and comfortable
I feel very cosy here in my bed
- 5
UKA padded or knit covering for any item (often an electronic device such as a laptop computer)
- 6
UKTo become friendly with
He spent all day cosying up to the new boss, hoping for a plum assignment
- 7
UKA work of crime fiction in which sex and violence are downplayed or treated humorously, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community
cozy
- 1
USUS standard spelling of cosy
- 2
USUS standard spelling of cosy
- 3
USUS standard spelling of cosy
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, cosy or cozy?
cosy appears 2.0 times per million words; cozy 4.4 times per million words.
cosy 2.0 times per million wordscozy 4.4 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 cosy vs cozy?
“cosy vs cozy” is searched about 590 times a month on Google and 30 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“cozy vs cosy”, “cosy or cozy”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.