cotevscoyoteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#29,983
“cote” frequency rank
#18,051
“coyote” frequency rank
48034
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cote coyote
Definition A cottage or hut. Canis latrans, a species of canine native to North America.

Where the eye mixes cote and coyote

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

4 ch
cote
6 ch
coyote

Why the eye confuses cote with coyote

A purely visual mix-up. cote (/kəʊt/) and coyote (/kəˈjoʊ.ti/) 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 48034, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cote is recorded at frequency rank #29,983, classified as anoun, pronounced /kəʊt/. coyote is at rank #18,051, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kəˈjoʊ.ti/.

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 48034, this pair ranks #196,961 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cote vs coyote

Shared letters: ceot. Private to "cote": -. Private to "coyote": y.

"cote" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "coyote" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coteccote · coet · cotte · ctoe · octe
  • coyoteccoyote · cooyte · coyoet · coyotte · coytoe · coyyote · cyoote · ocyote

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cote" and "coyote" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kəʊt/ versus /kəˈjoʊ.ti/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cote" vs "coyote" - which ranks higher?
"coyote" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,051 in our English list, against #29,983 for "cote". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cote" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coyote" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #196,961 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cote" and "coyote" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cote vs cower". 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 #196,961 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