couscous

Name: couscous, French Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

\kus.kus\

/\kus.kus\/ noun

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“couscous” has 11 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #23,818. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#23,818
frequency rank, French: 8,609
“C” headwords: 11
tracked misspellings: 1
confusable pair

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Semoule de blé dur ou de mil, cuite à la vapeur, que l'on sert habituellement, en Afrique du Nord, avec de la viande ou du poisson, des légumes et une sauce épicée.

Corpus desk

Index FR-couscous · couscous · French

couscous · rank #23,818 · 11 variants · 1 confusable

FREQ-MID #23,818
LEN-LONG 8 letters
VOW-4 4 vowels
CONFUS-LOW 1 pairs
VAR-MID 11 variants
BOOK-DENSE 8,609
PHOTO-FINISH cotées

Nearest frequency peer: cotées (-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.

corrompue

76,186
corrosion

76,185
cotées

76,184
couscous

76,183
CPU

76,182
CQFD

76,181

What this shows « couscous » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

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

couscous vs coucou

75% similar

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

Key facts for couscous
Property	Value
Headword	couscous
Language	French
Part of speech	Noun
IPA	\kus.kus\
Letters	8
Frequency rank	#23,818
Misspellings tracked	11
Confusable pairs	1
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « couscous »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.couscousse place ici:

#23,818

#1#100#1K#10K#100K

← used constantlyrarely used →

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « cotées » (#23,817), « CPU » (#23,819), « corrosion » (#23,816). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « couscous » est au #23,818. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 11 spelling variants around couscous (IPA \kus.kus\), anoun. Corpus frequency is #23,818 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 4 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for couscous, with forms such as "ccouscous", "cosucous", and "coucsous". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "coucou", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

No borrowing history is documented for this entry, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is couscous, spelled C-O-U-S-C-O-U-S.

Definition

1
Semoule de blé dur ou de mil, cuite à la vapeur, que l'on sert habituellement, en Afrique du Nord, avec de la viande ou du poisson, des légumes et une sauce épicée.
2
Plat maghrébin à base de cette semoule, accompagné de légumes et de viande.
3
Restaurant spécialisé dans ce plat.
4
Mets arabe formé d’un mélange de viande hachée et de farine, réduit en boulettes très petites qu’on fait frire dans l’huile.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

Le seikouk est un petit-lait légèrement aigre adouci de semoule de couscous vendu 1 dirham le verre par un marchand qui a harnaché sa bicyclette comme un âne d’une marmite et de deux gros bidons.
— Si ça vous dit, Monsieur Duprez, je peux préparer un couscous pour ce soir ? J’ai tout. Seulement faudrait pas trop tarder à me le dire, pour le bouillon.

This word in other languages

couscous(English)cuscús(Español)Kuskus(Deutsch)cuscuz(Português)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

ccouscous
cosucous
coucsous
cousccous
couscosu
couscouss
couscuos
cousocus
cousscous
cuoscous
ocuscous

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

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

Edit distance from "couscous"

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 "couscous"?

"couscous" is spelled C-O-U-S-C-O-U-S. The IPA pronunciation is \kus.kus\.

What does "couscous" mean?

As a noun, "couscous" means: Semoule de blé dur ou de mil, cuite à la vapeur, que l'on sert habituellement, en Afrique du Nord, avec de la viande ou du poisson, des légumes et une sauce épicée.

What words are commonly confused with "couscous"?

"couscous" is commonly confused with "coucou". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.

How do you pronounce "couscous"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "couscous" is \kus.kus\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.

What language does "couscous" come from?

"couscous" is a French 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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

copilote#23,812 constats#23,810 disparut#23,834 divorcer#23,836

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).

corrosion11 variants cricket11 variants corrompue11 variants colossale11 variants