Which to use
“cont” is a noun and “court” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #44,949
- “cont” frequency rank
- #960
- “court” frequency rank
- 45909
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cont | court |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Compte. | De petite longueur ou qui n’a pas la longueur moyenne des objets du même genre. |
Where the eye mixes cont and court
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cont runs 4 letters (CVCC) against court's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses cont with court
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cont is \ˈkont\ while court is \kuʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45909, 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\. court is at rank #960, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kuʁ\.
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 45909, this pair ranks #199,125 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cont vs court
Shared letters: cot. Private to "cont": n. Private to "court": ru.
"cont" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "court" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cont" for "court" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cont" vs "court" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cont" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "court" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #199,125 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cont" and "court" 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 #199,125 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.