Which to use
“cough” is a verb and “coups” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,668
- “cough” frequency rank
- #33,995
- “coups” frequency rank
- 41663
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cough | coups |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Sometimes followed by up: to force (something) out of the lungs or throat by pushing air from the lungs through the glottis (causing a short, explosive sound), and out through the mouth. | plural of coup |
Where the eye mixes cough and coups
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cough is /kɒf/ while coups is /kuːz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41663, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cough is recorded at frequency rank #7,668, classified as averb, pronounced /kɒf/. coups is at rank #33,995, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kuːz/.
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 41663, this pair ranks #256,214 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cough vs coups
Shared letters: cou. Private to "cough": gh. Private to "coups": ps.
"cough" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "coups" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC