Which to use
“colis” and “côtes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,228
- “colis” frequency rank
- #3,395
- “côtes” frequency rank
- 8623
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | colis | côtes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Caisse, ballot, paquet de marchandises expédiées. | Pluriel de côte. |
Where the eye mixes colis and côtes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: colis vs côtes
A purely visual mix-up. colis (\kɔ.li\) and côtes (\kot\) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8623, 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\. côtes is at rank #3,395, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kot\.
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 8623, this pair ranks #419,399 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of colis vs côtes
Shared letters: cs. Private to "colis": ilo. Private to "côtes": etô.
"colis" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "côtes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- colis ← ccolis · clois · coils · coliss · collis · colsi · oclis
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "colis" and "côtes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "colis" or "côtes" show up more?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "colis" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "côtes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #419,399 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "colis" and "côtes" 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 #419,399 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.