Which to use
“court” and “curd” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #370
- “court” frequency rank
- #31,942
- “curd” frequency rank
- 32312
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | court | curd |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | 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. | The part of milk that coagulates when it sours or is treated with enzymes; used to make cottage cheese, dahi, etc. |
Where the eye mixes court and curd
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. court runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against curd's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between court and curd
A purely visual mix-up. court (/kɔːt/) and curd (/kɜː(ɹ)d/) 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 32312, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
court is recorded at frequency rank #370, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɔːt/. curd is at rank #31,942, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɜː(ɹ)d/.
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 32312, this pair ranks #338,845 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of court vs curd
Shared letters: cru. Private to "court": ot. Private to "curd": d.
"court" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC · "curd" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "court" for "curd" ever safe?
Frequency check: "court" vs "curd" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "court" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "curd" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #338,845 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "court" and "curd" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "curd vs curia". 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 #338,845 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.