cours vs cuss, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“cours” is a noun and “cuss” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,550
“cours” frequency rank: #35,674
“cuss” frequency rank: 83224
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cours	cuss
Definition	three-month unit of television broadcasting corresponding to a natural season.	To use cursing, to use bad language, to speak profanely.

Where the spellings diverge

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

5 ch

cours

4 ch

cuss

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cours is anoun and cussaverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83224, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cours is recorded at frequency rank #47,550, classified as anoun. cuss is at rank #35,674, tagged as averb, pronounced /kʌs/.

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 83224, this pair ranks #14,228 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cours vs cuss

Shared letters: csu. Private to "cours": or. Private to "cuss": -.

"cours" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "cuss" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

cours ← ccours · corus · courrs · courss · cousr · cuors
cuss ← ccuss · csus · cus · ucss

Frequency comparison

cours#47,550

cuss#35,674

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cours" and "cuss" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cours" is a noun and "cuss" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "cours" or "cuss"?

"cuss" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,674 in our English list, against #47,550 for "cours". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cours vs cuss

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “cours”; for a verb, it's “cuss”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cours” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable