cox
/kɒks/
"cox" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cox” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #7,783) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #7,783
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A coxswain of a boat, especially of a racing crew.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cox · cox · English
cox · rank #7,783 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #7,783
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH Curtis
Nearest frequency peer: Curtis (+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 neighbours of confusable “cox”
Peers at similar corpus weight, separate from look-alike pairs below
- composite
composite
92,222 corpus weight
- consequently
consequently
92,221 corpus weight
- consist
consist
92,220 corpus weight
- cox
cox
92,218 corpus weight
- Curtis
Curtis
92,217 corpus weight
- decorated
decorated
92,216 corpus weight
What this shows Bars place “cox” against nearest ranked English headwords, not a reprint of the confusable-pair desk.
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 | cox |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɒks/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #7,783 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Corpus rank beside confusables of “cox”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for cox is neighbouring look-alikes ("CT", "CR", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced /kɒks/. Frequency #7,783 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Gloss: "A coxswain of a boat, especially of a racing crew.".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for cox, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CT", "CR", "cs", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Clipping of coxswain. The correct English form is cox, spelled C-O-X.
Definition
- 1A coxswain of a boat, especially of a racing crew.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how cox appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
A particularly nervous boy was appointed cox, and the steering principle explained to him by Joskins. Joskins himself took stroke. He told the others that it was simple enough; all they had to do was to follow him.
Etymology
Clipping of coxswain.
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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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cox", not the corpus desk frequency band.