contvscopsConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#44,949
“cont” frequency rank
#39,241
“cops” frequency rank
84190
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cont cops
Definition Compte. Enroulement de fils sur un tube cylindrique ou cylindro-conique.

Where the eye mixes cont and cops

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cont and cops follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
cont
4 ch
cops

Look-alike desk: cont vs cops

A purely visual mix-up. cont (\ˈkont\) and cops (\kɔps\) 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 84190, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cont is recorded at frequency rank #44,949, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈkont\. cops is at rank #39,241, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔps\.

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 84190, this pair ranks #13,428 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cont vs cops

Shared letters: co. Private to "cont": nt. Private to "cops": ps.

"cont" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "cops" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cont ← ccont · cnot · connt · contt · cotn · ocnt
  • cops ← ccops · copps · copss · cosp · cpos · ocps

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cont" and "cops" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈkont\ versus \kɔps\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cont" vs "cops" - which ranks higher?
"cops" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,241 in our French list, against #44,949 for "cont". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "cont" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cops" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,428 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cont" and "cops" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs cont". 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 #13,428 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