cousins
/ˈkʌzn̩s/
"cousins" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cousins” has 10 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #7,669. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #7,669
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 5
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - The American intelligence services (from a British perspective) or the British intelligence services (from an American perspective).
Corpus desk
Index EN-cousins · cousins · English
cousins · rank #7,669 · 10 variants · 5 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #7,669
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-MID 5 pairs
- VAR-MID 10 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH cough
Nearest frequency peer: cough (-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.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “cousins”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- corrected
corrected
92,335 corpus weight
- correction
correction
92,334 corpus weight
- cough
cough
92,333 corpus weight
- cousins
cousins
92,332 corpus weight
- critic
critic
92,331 corpus weight
- Czech
Czech
92,330 corpus weight
What this shows “cousins” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | cousins |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkʌzn̩s/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #7,669 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 5 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “cousins”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 10 spelling variants around cousins (IPA /ˈkʌzn̩s/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #7,669 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Dominant gloss: "The American intelligence services (from a British perspective) or the British intelligence services (from an American perspective).".
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for cousins, with forms such as "ccousins", "cosuins", and "couisns". 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 5 confusable-pair relationships, "coins", "cousin", "causing", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From cousin + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum, regular plurals of nouns, and the third-person singular indicative present tense forms of verbs). The plural noun noun 1 sense 1 (“American or British intelligence services”) was popularized in the works of … The correct English form is cousins, spelled C-O-U-S-I-N-S.
Definition
- 1The American intelligence services (from a British perspective) or the British intelligence services (from an American perspective).
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how cousins appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
[T]he grounded fieldmen, the trainers and the case officers who made their own murmured caucus always – they saw the question solely in operational terms. […] They saw the shotgun marriage with the Cousins as just another skilful bit of tradecraft in a long and delicate poker game.
Etymology
From cousin + -s (suffix forming pluralia tantum, regular plurals of nouns, and the third-person singular indicative present tense forms of verbs). The plural noun noun 1 sense 1 (“American or British intelligence services”) was popularized in the works of the English author John le Carré (David John Moore Cornwell; 1930–2020).
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ccousins
- cosuins
- couisns
- cousinns
- cousinss
- cousisn
- cousnis
- coussins
- cuosins
- ocusins
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cousins - 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
How do you spell "cousins"?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cousins", 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 (10 here; floor ≥5).