Which to use
“cour” and “course” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,064
- “cour” frequency rank
- #343
- “course” frequency rank
- 41407
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cour | course |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A three-month unit of television broadcasting, corresponding to one of the four seasons. | A sequence of events. |
Where the eye mixes cour and course
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between cour and course
A purely visual mix-up. cour (/ˈkʊə(ɹ)/) and course (/kɔːs/) 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 extra letter(s) - “cour” sits inside “course”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41407, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cour is recorded at frequency rank #41,064, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkʊə(ɹ)/. course is at rank #343, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɔːs/.
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 41407, this pair ranks #258,732 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cour vs course
Shared letters: coru. Private to "cour": -. Private to "course": es.
"cour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "course" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cour" and "course" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "cour" vs "course" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "course" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #258,732 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cour" and "course" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cour 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 #258,732 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.