closevscosaConfusable pair

Quick tell: close is a adjective, cosa is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“close” is an adjective and “cosa” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#10,842
“close” frequency rank
#46,679
“cosa” frequency rank
57521
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature close cosa
Definition Féminin singulier de clos. Variante du IXᵉ siècle de chose.

Where the eye mixes close and cosa

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

5 ch
close
4 ch
cosa

Look-alike desk: close vs cosa

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: close is \kloz\ while cosa is \ˈkɔza ~ˈkɔzə\. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57521, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

close is recorded at frequency rank #10,842, classified as anadj, pronounced \kloz\. 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 57521, this pair ranks #114,538 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of close vs cosa

Shared letters: cos. Private to "close": el. Private to "cosa": a.

"close" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "cosa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • closecclose · cllose · cloes · closse · clsoe · colse · lcose
  • cosaccosa · coas · cossa · csoa · ocsa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "close" and "cosa" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "close" is an adjective and "cosa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "close" vs "cosa" - which ranks higher?
"close" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,842 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "close" 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 #114,538 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "close" 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 #114,538 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