Which to use
“cour” and “crud” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #41,064
- “cour” frequency rank
- #45,306
- “crud” frequency rank
- 86370
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cour | crud |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A three-month unit of television broadcasting, corresponding to one of the four seasons. | Dirt, filth or refuse. |
Where the eye mixes cour and crud
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cour (CVVC) and crud (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses cour with crud
A purely visual mix-up. cour (/ˈkʊə(ɹ)/) and crud (/kɹʌd/) 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 86370, 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)/. crud is at rank #45,306, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹʌd/.
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 86370, this pair ranks #9,069 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cour vs crud
Shared letters: cru. Private to "cour": o. Private to "crud": d.
"cour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "crud" · 4 letters · shape CCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cour" and "crud" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "cour" or "crud" show up more?
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 "crud" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #9,069 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cour" and "crud" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crud vs CVD". 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 #9,069 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.