courvscruxWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,064
“cour” frequency rank
#27,109
“crux” frequency rank
68173
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cour crux
Definition A three-month unit of television broadcasting, corresponding to one of the four seasons. The basic, central, or essential point or feature.

Where the eye mixes cour and crux

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cour
4 ch
crux

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. cour (/ˈkʊə(ɹ)/) and crux (/kɹʌks/) 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 68173, 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)/. crux is at rank #27,109, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹʌks/.

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 68173, this pair ranks #60,096 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cour vs crux

Shared letters: cru. Private to "cour": o. Private to "crux": x.

"cour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "crux" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • courccour · coru · courr · cuor
  • cruxccrux · crrux · cruxx · crxu · curx · rcux

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cour" and "crux" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkʊə(ɹ)/ versus /kɹʌks/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cour" or "crux"?
"crux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,109 in our English list, against #41,064 for "cour". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "cour" and "crux". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,096 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cour" and "crux" 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list