colisvscorpsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,228
“colis” frequency rank
#369
“corps” frequency rank
5597
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature colis corps
Definition Caisse, ballot, paquet de marchandises expédiées. Portion de matière qui forme un tout individuel et distinct.

Where the eye mixes colis and corps

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
colis
5 ch
corps

Look-alike desk: colis vs corps

A purely visual mix-up. colis (\kɔ.li\) and corps (\kɔʁ\) 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 5597, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

colis is recorded at frequency rank #5,228, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.li\. corps is at rank #369, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁ\.

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 5597, this pair ranks #428,566 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of colis vs corps

Shared letters: cos. Private to "colis": il. Private to "corps": pr.

"colis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "corps" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • colisccolis · clois · coils · coliss · collis · colsi · oclis
  • corpsccorps · coprs · corpps · corpss · corrps · corsp · crops · ocrps

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "colis" for "corps" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.li\ versus \kɔʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "colis" or "corps"?
"corps" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #369 in our French list, against #5,228 for "colis". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "colis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "corps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #428,566 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "colis" and "corps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "colis vs colla". 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 #428,566 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