coinsvscousinsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,842
“coins” frequency rank
#8,222
“cousins” frequency rank
14064
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coins cousins
Definition Pluriel de coin. Pluriel de cousin.

Where the eye mixes coins and cousins

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
coins
7 ch
cousins

Visual trap between coins and cousins

A purely visual mix-up. coins (\kwɛ̃\) and cousins (\ku.zɛ̃\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14064, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coins is recorded at frequency rank #5,842, classified as anoun, pronounced \kwɛ̃\. cousins is at rank #8,222, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ku.zɛ̃\.

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 14064, this pair ranks #398,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of coins vs cousins

Shared letters: cinos. Private to "coins": -. Private to "cousins": u.

"coins" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC  ·  "cousins" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coinsccoins · cions · coinns · coinss · coisn · conis · ocins
  • cousinsccousins · cosuins · couisns · cousinns · cousinss · cousisn · cousnis · cuosins

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coins" and "cousins" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kwɛ̃\ versus \ku.zɛ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "coins" vs "cousins" - which ranks higher?
"coins" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,842 in our French list, against #8,222 for "cousins". 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 "coins" and "cousins" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coins" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cousins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #398,339 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coins" and "cousins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coins vs coon". 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 #398,339 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