closvscosaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,433
“clos” frequency rank
#46,679
“cosa” frequency rank
52112
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature clos cosa
Definition Espace de terre cultivé et fermé de murs ou de haies, de fossés, etc. Variante du IXᵉ siècle de chose.

Where the eye mixes clos and cosa

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

4 ch
clos
4 ch
cosa

Why the eye confuses clos with cosa

A purely visual mix-up. clos (\klo\) and cosa (\ˈkɔza ~ˈkɔzə\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52112, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

clos is recorded at frequency rank #5,433, classified as anoun, pronounced \klo\. cosa is at rank #46,679, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɔza ~ˈkɔzə\.

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 52112, this pair ranks #150,088 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of clos vs cosa

Shared letters: cos. Private to "clos": l. Private to "cosa": a.

"clos" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "cosa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • closcclos · cllos · closs · clso · lcos
  • cosaccosa · coas · cossa · csoa · ocsa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "clos" for "cosa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\klo\ versus \ˈkɔza ~ˈkɔzə\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "clos" vs "cosa" - which ranks higher?
"clos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,433 in our French list, against #46,679 for "cosa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "clos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cosa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #150,088 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "clos" and "cosa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cosa 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 #150,088 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