col

\kɔl\

/\kɔl\/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“col” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #3,392) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#3,392
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Partie du vêtement qui entoure le cou.

Corpus desk

Index FR-col · col · French

col · rank #3,392 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #3,392
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH Chris

Nearest frequency peer: Chris (-1 rank slots)

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.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « col »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « col » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

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

col vs CV
0% similar
col vs Ct
0% similar
col vs CP
0% similar

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

Key facts for col
PropertyValue
Headwordcol
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kɔl\
Letters3
Frequency rank#3,392
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « col »

La fréquence va de la poignée de mots du quotidien (gauche) à la longue queue presque jamais vue (droite).colse place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « Chris » (#3,391), « courrier » (#3,393), « chapeau » (#3,390). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « col » est au #3,392. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for col is neighbouring look-alikes ("CV", "Ct", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \kɔl\. Frequency #3,392 among 8,609 “C” headwords. 7 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for col, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CV", "Ct", "CP", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is col, spelled C-O-L.

Definition

  1. 1
    Partie du vêtement qui entoure le cou.
  2. 2
    Pièce de lingerie, de dentelle ou d’étoffe qui garnit le haut d’un corsage de femme.
  3. 3
    Cou. — Note d’usage : On le dit quelquefois encore devant une voyelle.
  4. 4
    Désigne différentes extrémités du corps.
  5. 5
    Partie longue et étroite par laquelle on remplit et on vide une bouteille ou un vase.
  6. 6
    Récipient d’emballage qui possède un tel col.
  7. 7
    Point de passage privilégié entre deux versants, du fait d’une altitude plus basse que les environs.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how col appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Avec le surplus de ses gains, il achetait des cigarettes, des cols et des cravates sensationnels […]
  2. Jusqu’aux cravates, au petit nœud suavement bloqué par une épingle dans l’échancrure du col, jusqu’au feu d’un vrai diam’ et au cuir mat du bracelet-montre, on sentait ces messieurs soucieux de leur mise.

Synonyms

cormethourque

This word in other languages

collar(English)collar(Español)Kragen(Deutsch)colarinho(Português)

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "col"?
"col" is spelled C-O-L. The IPA pronunciation is \kɔl\.
What does "col" mean?
As a noun, "col" means: Partie du vêtement qui entoure le cou.
What words are commonly confused with "col"?
"col" is commonly confused with "CV", "Ct", "CP". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "col"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "col" is \kɔl\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "col" come from?
"col" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "col", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

pop#3,353pis#3,350com#3,446hey#3,461

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list