comavscopyConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#8,824
“coma” frequency rank
#43,360
“copy” frequency rank
52184
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coma copy
Definition État somnolent avec abolition de la sensibilité et du mouvement volontaire. Copie.

Where the eye mixes coma and copy

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

4 ch
coma
4 ch
copy

Look-alike desk: coma vs copy

A purely visual mix-up. coma (\kɔ.ma\) and copy (\ˈkɒp.i\) 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 52184, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coma is recorded at frequency rank #8,824, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.ma\. copy is at rank #43,360, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɒp.i\.

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 52184, this pair ranks #149,510 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coma vs copy

Shared letters: co. Private to "coma": am. Private to "copy": py.

"coma" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "copy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • comaccoma · cmoa · coam · comma · ocma
  • copyccopy · coppy · copyy · coyp · cpoy · ocpy

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "coma" for "copy" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.ma\ versus \ˈkɒp.i\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "coma" vs "copy" - which ranks higher?
"coma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,824 in our French list, against #43,360 for "copy". 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 "coma" and "copy" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "copy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #149,510 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coma" and "copy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "copy vs coupa". 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 #149,510 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