Which to use
“course” and “court” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #343
- “course” frequency rank
- #370
- “court” frequency rank
- 713
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | course | court |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A sequence of events. | An enclosed space; a courtyard; an uncovered area shut in by the walls of a building, or by different buildings; also, a space opening from a street and nearly surrounded by houses; a blind alley. |
Where the eye mixes course and court
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. course (/kɔːs/) and court (/kɔːt/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 713, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
course is recorded at frequency rank #343, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɔːs/. court is at rank #370, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɔːt/.
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 713, this pair ranks #528,926 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of course vs court
Shared letters: coru. Private to "course": es. Private to "court": t.
"course" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "court" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC