cœursvscorsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“cœurs” and “cors” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#6,946
“cœurs” frequency rank
#31,423
“cors” frequency rank
38369
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cœurs cors
Definition Pluriel de cœur. Pluriel de cor.

Where the eye mixes cœurs and cors

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cœurs runs 5 letters (CVVCC) against cors's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
cœurs
4 ch
cors

Why the eye confuses cœurs with cors

A purely visual mix-up. cœurs (\kœʁ\) and cors (\kɔʁ\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38369, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cœurs is recorded at frequency rank #6,946, classified as anoun, pronounced \kœʁ\. cors is at rank #31,423, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁ\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 38369, this pair ranks #255,734 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cœurs vs cors

Shared letters: crs. Private to "cœurs": uœ. Private to "cors": o.

"cœurs" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "cors" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cors ← ccors · corrs · cosr · ocrs

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cœurs" and "cors" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kœʁ\ versus \kɔʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "cœurs" or "cors" show up more?
"cœurs" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,946 in our French list, against #31,423 for "cors". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cœurs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cors" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #255,734 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cœurs" and "cors" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs cors". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #255,734 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list