coupevscoupsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,524
“coupe” frequency rank
#33,995
“coups” frequency rank
52519
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coupe coups
Definition A shallow glass or glass dish, usually with a stem, in which sparkling wine or desserts are served. plural of coup

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set coupe and coups apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
coupe
5 ch
coups

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. coupe (/kuːp/) and coups (/kuːz/) 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 a single letter - e in “coupe” becomes s in “coups”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52519, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coupe is recorded at frequency rank #18,524, classified as anoun, pronounced /kuːp/. 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 52519, this pair ranks #156,354 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coupe vs coups

Shared letters: copu. Private to "coupe": e. Private to "coups": s.

"coupe" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "coups" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coupeccoupe · copue · couep · couppe · cuope · ocupe
  • coupsccoups · copus · coupps · coupss · cousp · cuops · ocups

Frequency comparison

coupe#18,524
coups#33,995

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coupe" and "coups" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kuːp/ versus /kuːz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "coupe" or "coups"?
"coupe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,524 in our English list, against #33,995 for "coups". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering coupe vs coups

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “coupe” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list