coursing

noun

"coursing" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“coursing” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #42,073 in English word frequency and used as a noun.

#42,073
frequency rank, English
8
letters
12
tracked misspellings
13
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - The sport of chasing wild animals, especially hares, with dogs by sight rather than by scent.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

coursing vs cousin
75% similar
coursing vs curing
75% similar
coursing vs cousins
75% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for coursing
PropertyValue
Headwordcoursing
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters8
Frequency rank#42,073
Misspellings tracked12
Confusable pairs13
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “coursing” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). coursing lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for coursing is 8 letters long, classified as a noun. Corpus data places it at rank #42,073 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "The sport of chasing wild animals, especially hares, with dogs by sight rather than by scent.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 12 likely wrong-spelling variants for coursing, with forms such as "ccoursing", "corusing", and "courisng". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 13 confusable-pair relationships, "cousin", "curing", "cousins", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct English form is coursing, spelled C-O-U-R-S-I-N-G.

Definition

  1. 1
    The sport of chasing wild animals, especially hares, with dogs by sight rather than by scent.

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: ccoursing,corusing,courisng,courrsing,coursign,coursingg,coursinng,coursnig,courssing,cousring,cuorsing,ocursing

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of coursing - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

ccoursing1corusing2courisng2courrsing1coursign2coursingg1coursinng1coursnig2
Edit distance from "coursing"

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.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "coursing"?
"coursing" is spelled C-O-U-R-S-I-N-G.
What does "coursing" mean?
As a noun, "coursing" means: The sport of chasing wild animals, especially hares, with dogs by sight rather than by scent.
What words are commonly confused with "coursing"?
"coursing" is commonly confused with "cousin", "curing", "cousins". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
What language does "coursing" come from?
"coursing" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “coursing”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is C-O-U-R-S-I-N-G - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Don't mix it up with “cousin” - see the side-by-side comparison. coursing vs cousin
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
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.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list