# curtail vs Curtis

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### curtail
*verb · IPA /kɜːˈteɪl/ · frequency rank #29,620*
To cut short the tail of (an animal).

### Curtis
*name · IPA /ˈkɝtɪs/ · frequency rank #7,784*
An English surname transferred from the nickname, originally a nickname for a refined or courtly person.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/curtail-vs-curtis