citiesvscopiesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#34,467
“cities” frequency rank
#7,041
“copies” frequency rank
41508
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cities copies
Definition Pluriel de city. Pluriel de copie.

Where the eye mixes cities and copies

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
cities
6 ch
copies

Why the eye confuses cities with copies

A purely visual mix-up. cities (\ˈsɪt.iz\) and copies (\kɔ.pi\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41508, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cities is recorded at frequency rank #34,467, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈsɪt.iz\. copies is at rank #7,041, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.pi\.

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 41508, this pair ranks #232,581 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cities vs copies

Shared letters: ceis. Private to "cities": t. Private to "copies": op.

"cities" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "copies" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • citiesccities · ciites · citeis · citiess · citise · citties · ctiies · icties
  • copiesccopies · coipes · copeis · copiess · copise · coppies · cpoies · ocpies

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cities" and "copies" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈsɪt.iz\ versus \kɔ.pi\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cities" vs "copies" - which ranks higher?
"copies" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,041 in our French list, against #34,467 for "cities". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cities" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "copies" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #232,581 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cities" and "copies" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cities vs citizens". 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 #232,581 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