coïtvscoliWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,723
“coït” frequency rank
#34,028
“coli” frequency rank
75751
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coït coli
Definition Accouplement sexuel. Escherichia coli ou E. coli ou colibacille.

Where the eye mixes coït and coli

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. coït (CVCC) and coli (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
coït
4 ch
coli

Look-alike desk: coït vs coli

A purely visual mix-up. coït (\kɔ.it\) and coli (\kɔ.li\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75751, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coït is recorded at frequency rank #41,723, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.it\. coli is at rank #34,028, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.li\.

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 75751, this pair ranks #33,115 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of coït vs coli

Shared letters: co. Private to "coït": tï. Private to "coli": il.

"coït" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "coli" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coli ← ccoli · coil · colli · ocli

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "coït" for "coli" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.it\ versus \kɔ.li\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "coït" or "coli"?
"coli" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,028 in our French list, against #41,723 for "coït". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "coït" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coli" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,115 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coït" and "coli" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coït 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 #33,115 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