coupsvscrapsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#33,995
“coups” frequency rank
#36,939
“craps” frequency rank
70934
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coups craps
Definition plural of coup A game of gambling, or chance, where the players throw dice to make scores and avoid crap.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set coups and craps apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
coups
5 ch
craps

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. coups (/kuːz/) and craps (/kɹæps/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70934, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coups is recorded at frequency rank #33,995, classified as anoun, pronounced /kuːz/. craps is at rank #36,939, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹæps/.

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 70934, this pair ranks #48,663 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of coups vs craps

Shared letters: cps. Private to "coups": ou. Private to "craps": ar.

"coups" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "craps" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coupsccoups · copus · coupps · coupss · cousp · cuops · ocups
  • crapscarps · ccraps · crapps · crapss · crasp · crpas · crraps · rcaps

Frequency comparison

coups#33,995
craps#36,939

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coups" and "craps" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kuːz/ versus /kɹæps/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "coups" or "craps"?
"coups" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,995 in our English list, against #36,939 for "craps". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering coups vs craps

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 “coups” 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