cocottesvscoyotesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,660
“cocottes” frequency rank
#30,964
“coyotes” frequency rank
77624
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cocottes coyotes
Definition Pluriel de cocotte. Pluriel de coyote.

Where the eye mixes cocottes and coyotes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. cocottes runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVC) against coyotes's 7 (CVVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
cocottes
7 ch
coyotes

Look-alike desk: cocottes vs coyotes

A purely visual mix-up. cocottes (\kɔ.kɔt\) and coyotes (\kɔ.jɔt\) 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 77624, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cocottes is recorded at frequency rank #46,660, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.kɔt\. coyotes is at rank #30,964, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.jɔt\.

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 77624, this pair ranks #27,850 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cocottes vs coyotes

Shared letters: ceost. Private to "cocottes": -. Private to "coyotes": y.

"cocottes" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "coyotes" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cocottes ← ccocottes · ccoottes · coccottes · cocotes · cocotets · cocottess · cocottse · coctotes
  • coyotes ← ccoyotes · cooytes · coyoets · coyotess · coyotse · coyottes · coytoes · coyyotes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cocottes" for "coyotes" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.kɔt\ versus \kɔ.jɔt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cocottes" or "coyotes"?
"coyotes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,964 in our French list, against #46,660 for "cocottes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cocottes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coyotes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #27,850 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cocottes" and "coyotes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cocotier vs cocottes". 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 #27,850 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