Which to use
“cour” is a noun and “cower” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #41,064
- “cour” frequency rank
- #49,846
- “cower” frequency rank
- 90910
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cour | cower |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A three-month unit of television broadcasting, corresponding to one of the four seasons. | To crouch or cringe, or to avoid or shy away from something, in fear. |
Where the eye mixes cour and cower
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cour runs 4 letters (CVVC) against cower's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: cour vs cower
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cour is /ˈkʊə(ɹ)/ while cower is /ˈkaʊɚ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90910, 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)/. cower is at rank #49,846, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkaʊɚ/.
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 90910, this pair ranks #3,768 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cour vs cower
Shared letters: cor. Private to "cour": u. Private to "cower": ew.
"cour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "cower" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cour" for "cower" ever safe?
Which is more common, "cour" or "cower"?
Useful next steps
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 "cower" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #3,768 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cour" and "cower" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cower vs Cowper". 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 #3,768 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.