Which to use
“cot” and “court” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,045
- “cot” frequency rank
- #370
- “court” frequency rank
- 22415
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cot | court |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A simple bed, especially one for portable or temporary purposes. | An enclosed space; a courtyard; an uncovered area shut in by the walls of a building, or by different buildings; also, a space opening from a street and nearly surrounded by houses; a blind alley. |
Where the eye mixes cot and court
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. cot (/kɒt/) and court (/kɔːt/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22415, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cot is recorded at frequency rank #22,045, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɒt/. court is at rank #370, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɔːt/.
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 22415, this pair ranks #416,757 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cot vs court
Shared letters: cot. Private to "cot": -. Private to "court": ru.
"cot" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "court" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
- court ← ccourt · corut · courrt · courtt · coutr · cuort · ocurt
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cot" and "court" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "cot" or "court"?
What to do next
You've compared "cot" and "court". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "cot" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "court" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #416,757 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cot" and "court" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cot vs Croat". 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
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.