grossevsgrouseWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“grosse” and “grouse” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#41,160
“grosse” frequency rank
#24,178
“grouse” frequency rank
65338
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature grosse grouse
Definition Obsolete spelling of gross. Any of various game birds of the subfamily Tetraoninae which inhabit temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere; specifically, the red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scotica) native to heather moorland on the British Isles.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set grosse and grouse apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

6 ch
grosse
6 ch
grouse

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

grosse and grouse are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - s in “grosse” becomes u in “grouse”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65338, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

grosse is recorded at frequency rank #41,160, classified as anoun. grouse is at rank #24,178, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɡɹaʊs/.

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 65338, this pair ranks #73,261 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of grosse vs grouse

Shared letters: egors. Private to "grosse": -. Private to "grouse": u.

"grosse" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV  ·  "grouse" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • grosseggrosse · gorsse · grose · groses · grrosse · grsose · rgosse
  • grouseggrouse · goruse · grosue · groues · grousse · grrouse · gruose · rgouse

Frequency comparison

grosse#41,160
grouse#24,178

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "grosse" and "grouse" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by a single letter - s in “grosse” becomes u in “grouse”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "grosse" or "grouse"?
"grouse" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,178 in our English list, against #41,160 for "grosse". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering grosse vs grouse

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “grosse” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list