court
/kɔːt/
"court" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“court” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #370 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #370
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 7
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - An enclosed space; a courtyard; an uncovered area shut in by the walls of a building, or by different buildings; also, a space opening from a street and nearly surrounded by houses; a blind alley.
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 | court |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɔːt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #370 |
| Misspellings tracked | 7 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “court” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for court is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kɔːt/. Corpus data places it at rank #370 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 17 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 7 likely wrong-spelling variants for court, with forms such as "ccourt", "corut", and "courrt". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cut", "CRT", "cur", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English court, from Old French cort, curt, from Late Latin cōrs, contracted from Latin cohors. Doublet of cohort. A court (noun sense 4.2) assembled to hear the testimony of Charles Lindbergh. The room is also a court (noun sense 4.1). Professio… The correct English form is court, spelled C-O-U-R-T.
Definition
- 1An enclosed space; a courtyard; an uncovered area shut in by the walls of a building, or by different buildings; also, a space opening from a street and nearly surrounded by houses; a blind alley.
- 2An enclosed space; a courtyard; an uncovered area shut in by the walls of a building, or by different buildings; also, a space opening from a street and nearly surrounded by houses; a blind alley.
- 3An enclosed space; a courtyard; an uncovered area shut in by the walls of a building, or by different buildings; also, a space opening from a street and nearly surrounded by houses; a blind alley.
- 4An enclosed space; a courtyard; an uncovered area shut in by the walls of a building, or by different buildings; also, a space opening from a street and nearly surrounded by houses; a blind alley.
- 5Royal society.
- 6Royal society.
- 7Royal society.
- 8Attention directed to a person in power; behaviour designed to gain favor; politeness of manner; civility towards someone.
- 9The administration of law.
- 10The administration of law.
- 11The administration of law.
- 12The administration of law.
- 13The administration of law.
- 14The administration of law.
- 15A place arranged for playing the games of tennis, basketball, handball, badminton, volleyball, squash and some other games
- 16A place arranged for playing the games of tennis, basketball, handball, badminton, volleyball, squash and some other games
- 17A space prepared and decorated by certain bird species in which to advertise themselves for a mate.
Etymology
From Middle English court, from Old French cort, curt, from Late Latin cōrs, contracted from Latin cohors. Doublet of cohort. A court (noun sense 4.2) assembled to hear the testimony of Charles Lindbergh. The room is also a court (noun sense 4.1). Professional tennis players playing on a tennis court (noun sense 5) in New Delhi, India
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccourt,corut,courrt,courtt,coutr,cuort,ocurt
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of court - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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
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Using “court”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-O-U-R-T - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kɔːt/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cut” - see the side-by-side comparison. court vs cut
- 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.