ceuxvscoxWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ceux is a pronoun, cox is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ceux” is a pronoun and “cox” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#175
“ceux” frequency rank
#19,493
“cox” frequency rank
19668
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ceux cox
Definition Masculin pluriel de celui. Variété de pommier.

Where the eye mixes ceux and cox

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
ceux
3 ch
cox

Why the eye confuses ceux with cox

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ceux is \sø\ while cox is \koks\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19668, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ceux is recorded at frequency rank #175, classified as apron, pronounced \sø\. cox is at rank #19,493, tagged as anoun, pronounced \koks\.

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 19668, this pair ranks #372,138 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ceux vs cox

Shared letters: cx. Private to "ceux": eu. Private to "cox": o.

"ceux" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "cox" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ceuxcceux · ceuxx · cexu · cuex · ecux

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ceux" and "cox" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ceux" is a pronoun and "cox" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ceux" vs "cox" - which ranks higher?
"ceux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #175 in our French list, against #19,493 for "cox". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ceux" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cox" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #372,138 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ceux" and "cox" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs cox". 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 #372,138 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