Which to use
“clips” and “cops” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,126
- “clips” frequency rank
- #39,241
- “cops” frequency rank
- 49367
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | clips | cops |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de clip. | Enroulement de fils sur un tube cylindrique ou cylindro-conique. |
Where the eye mixes clips and cops
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses clips with cops
A purely visual mix-up. clips (\klip\) and cops (\kɔps\) 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 49367, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
clips is recorded at frequency rank #10,126, classified as anoun, pronounced \klip\. cops is at rank #39,241, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔps\.
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 49367, this pair ranks #171,277 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of clips vs cops
Shared letters: cps. Private to "clips": il. Private to "cops": o.
"clips" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC · "cops" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "clips" for "cops" ever safe?
Which is more common, "clips" or "cops"?
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 "clips" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cops" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #171,277 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "clips" and "cops" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cops vs coupa". 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 #171,277 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.