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PlainSpell

course

/kɔɹs/noun, verb, adverb

course is spelled C-O-U-R-S-E. The wrong spelling people search most is cource: about 70 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 127 of all searches for the word. Course is a noun meaning “A sequence of events”. The plural of course is courses.

How many letters and syllables are in course?

Letters6: C-O-U-R-S-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing275 times per million words; the 347th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, cource, about 70 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Pairs people search
Sounds like
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell course?

Course is spelled C-O-U-R-S-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 126 of the searches for course in either form.

coursethe right spelling8,750 searches a month
courcec in place of s70 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is course?

Course appears 275 times per million words in written English, the 347th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce course?

  • UK /kɔːs/
  • US /kɔɹs/
  • /koːɹs/

Course has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-course.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with course

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

coarse vs course1,900 G
corse vs course50 G
course vs curse0 B

Sounds like: coarse (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).

Also written: cours.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

What rhymes with course?

8 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as course from its last stressed vowel (/ɔɹs/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: source, crouse.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of course

  • courses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • coursing participle, present
  • coursed participle, past
  • 'course hypercorrect

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does course mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A sequence of events.

    The normal course of events seems to be just one damned thing after another.

  2. 2

    A normal or customary sequence.

  3. 3

    A programme, a chosen manner of proceeding.

    Doubts arose about the expediency of such a course in the present crisis.

  4. 4

    Any ordered process or sequence of steps.

  5. 5

    A learning programme

  6. 6

    a series of lectures or lessons in a particular subject

    I need to take a French course.

  7. 7

    IrelandUKan educational programme at a college or university leading to an academic degree or vocational qualification.

    What's your course in university? –Business studies. And you?

  8. 8

    A treatment plan.

verb

  1. 1

    To run or flow (especially of liquids and more particularly blood).

    The oil coursed through the engine.

  2. 2

    To run through or over.

  3. 3

    To pursue by tracking or estimating the course taken by one's prey; to follow or chase after.

  4. 4

    To cause to chase after or pursue game.

    to course greyhounds after deer

adverb

  1. 1

    colloquialEllipsis of of course.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate course?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of course: oc.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Course in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Portuguesecurso (sequence of events), disciplina, matéria (education: learning program), prato (cooking: stage of a meal), correr (Flow)
Spanishtranscurso, curso, decurso (sequence of events), materia (education: learning program), plato (cooking: stage of a meal), correr (Flow)
Frenchcours (education: learning program), plat (cooking: stage of a meal), parcourir (Flow), parcours (itinerary of a race), trajectoire (sports: trajectory of a ball etc), route (nautical: direction of movement of a vessel)
GermanKurs, Lehrgang (education: learning program), Gang (cooking: stage of a meal), fließen (Flow), Strecke (itinerary of a race), Bahn (sports: trajectory of a ball etc)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does course come from?

From Middle English cours, from Old French cours, from Latin cursus (“course of a race”), from currō (“run”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱers- (“to run”). Doublet of cursus and cour.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after course