chouxvscoxConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#11,540
“choux” frequency rank
#19,493
“cox” frequency rank
31033
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature choux cox
Definition Pluriel de chou. Variété de pommier.

Where the eye mixes choux and cox

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
choux
3 ch
cox

Look-alike desk: choux vs cox

A purely visual mix-up. choux (\ʃu\) and cox (\koks\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31033, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

choux is recorded at frequency rank #11,540, classified as anoun, pronounced \ʃu\. 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 31033, this pair ranks #306,428 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of choux vs cox

Shared letters: cox. Private to "choux": hu. Private to "cox": -.

"choux" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC  ·  "cox" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chouxcchoux · chhoux · chouxx · choxu · chuox · cohux · hcoux

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "choux" for "cox" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ʃu\ versus \koks\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "choux" or "cox"?
"choux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,540 in our French list, against #19,493 for "cox". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "choux" and "cox" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "choux" 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 #306,428 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "choux" 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 #306,428 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