courtedvscourtierConfusable pair

Quick tell: courted is a adjective, courtier is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“courted” is an adjective and “courtier” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,593
“courted” frequency rank
#44,714
“courtier” frequency rank
78307
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature courted courtier
Definition Romantically pursued; wooed. A person in attendance at a royal court.

Letter map: courted vs courtier

Shared letters muted; letters that set courted and courtier apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. courted runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against courtier's 8 (CVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
courted
8 ch
courtier

Grammar separator: courted vs courtier

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: courted is anadjective and courtieranoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78307, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

courted is recorded at frequency rank #33,593, classified as anadj. courtier is at rank #44,714, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɔɹtiɚ/.

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 78307, this pair ranks #24,933 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of courted vs courtier

Shared letters: ceortu. Private to "courted": d. Private to "courtier": i.

"courted" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "courtier" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • courtedccourted · coruted · couretd · courrted · courtde · courtedd · courtted · coutred
  • courtierccourtier · corutier · couriter · courrtier · courteir · courtierr · courtire · courttier

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "courted" for "courtier" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "courted" is an adjective and "courtier" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary English text, does "courted" or "courtier" show up more?
"courted" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,593 in our English list, against #44,714 for "courtier". 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 "courted" and "courtier". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "courted" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "courtier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,933 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "courted" and "courtier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courtier vs courtiers". 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 #24,933 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list