CMAvscosaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,763
“CMA” frequency rank
#46,679
“cosa” frequency rank
83442
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature CMA cosa
Definition Organisme consulaire chargé de développer l’activité économique dans le domaine de l'artisanat. Variante du IXᵉ siècle de chose.

Where the eye mixes CMA and cosa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
CMA
4 ch
cosa

Look-alike desk: CMA vs cosa

A purely visual mix-up. CMA (\se.ɛm.a\) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83442, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

CMA is recorded at frequency rank #36,763, classified as anoun, pronounced \se.ɛm.a\. 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 83442, this pair ranks #14,832 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of CMA vs cosa

Shared letters: ac. Private to "CMA": m. Private to "cosa": os.

"CMA" · 3 letters · shape CCV  ·  "cosa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cosaccosa · coas · cossa · csoa · ocsa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "CMA" for "cosa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\se.ɛm.a\ versus \ˈkɔza ~ˈkɔzə\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "CMA" or "cosa"?
"CMA" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,763 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "CMA" 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 #14,832 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "CMA" 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 #14,832 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