courage
/ˈkʌ.ɹɪd͡ʒ/
"courage" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“courage” has 9 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #4,148. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #4,148
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 8
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The quality of being confident, not afraid or easily intimidated, but without being incautious or inconsiderate.
Corpus desk
Index EN-courage · courage · English
courage · rank #4,148 · 9 variants · 8 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #4,148
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-4 4 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 8 pairs
- VAR-MID 9 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH connections
Nearest frequency peer: connections (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “courage”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- complaint
complaint
95,856 corpus weight
- component
component
95,855 corpus weight
- connections
connections
95,854 corpus weight
- courage
courage
95,853 corpus weight
- cure
cure
95,852 corpus weight
- del
del
95,851 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “courage” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | courage |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkʌ.ɹɪd͡ʒ/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #4,148 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 8 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “courage” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around courage (IPA /ˈkʌ.ɹɪd͡ʒ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #4,148 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for courage, with forms such as "ccourage", "coruage", and "couarge". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 8 confusable-pair relationships, "course", "curate", "courant", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English corage, from Old French corage (French courage), from Vulgar Latin *corāticum, from Latin cor (“heart”). Distantly related to cardiac (“of the heart”), which is from Greek, but from the same Proto-Indo-European root. Displaced Middle Eng… The correct English form is courage, spelled C-O-U-R-A-G-E.
Definition
- 1The quality of being confident, not afraid or easily intimidated, but without being incautious or inconsiderate.
- 2The ability to overcome one's fear, do or live things which one finds frightening.
- 3The ability to maintain one's will or intent despite either the experience of fear, frailty, or frustration; or the occurrence of adversity, difficulty, defeat or reversal. Moral fortitude.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how courage appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A great part of courage is the courage of having done the thing before.
There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.
Etymology
From Middle English corage, from Old French corage (French courage), from Vulgar Latin *corāticum, from Latin cor (“heart”). Distantly related to cardiac (“of the heart”), which is from Greek, but from the same Proto-Indo-European root. Displaced Middle English elne, ellen, from Old English ellen (“courage, valor”).
Synonyms
Antonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ccourage
- coruage
- couarge
- couraeg
- couragge
- courgae
- courrage
- cuorage
- ocurage
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of courage - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "courage"?
What does "courage" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "courage"?
How do you pronounce "courage"?
What is the origin of the word "courage"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "courage", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (9 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "courage". Here's where to go from here.
- "courage" maps to 8 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "course". View pair
- 9 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #4,148 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "C" letter cohort. C–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.