coït vs con, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#41,723
“coït” frequency rank: #1,056
“con” frequency rank: 42779
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	coït	con
Definition	Accouplement sexuel.	Sexe de la femme.

Where the eye mixes coït and con

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

4 ch

coït

3 ch

con

Why the eye confuses coït with con

A purely visual mix-up. coït (\kɔ.it\) and con (\kɔ̃\) 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 42779, 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\. con is at rank #1,056, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃\.

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 42779, this pair ranks #223,015 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coït vs con

Shared letters: co. Private to "coït": tï. Private to "con": n.

"coït" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "con" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "coït" for "con" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (\kɔ.it\ versus \kɔ̃\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Frequency check: "coït" vs "con" - which ranks higher?

"con" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,056 in our French list, against #41,723 for "coït". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

Full dictionary entry for "coït" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "con" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #223,015 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"coït" and "con" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coït vs coon". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #223,015 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.