copvscoqTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,394
“cop” frequency rank
#8,980
“coq” frequency rank
26374
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cop coq
Definition Bouteille de bière d'une contenance de 0,66 litre. (Essentiellement en Côte-d'Ivoire) Genre d’oiseau de l’ordre des galliformes et de la famille des phasianidés, comprenant quatre espèces habitant les forêts humides du sud de l’Asie, de l’Inde jusqu’à l’Indonésie, au dimorphisme sexuel extrêmement prononcé, et dont une espèce, le coq doré (Gallus gallus) est l’ancêtre universel du coq domestique de basse-cour.

Where the eye mixes cop and coq

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

3 ch
cop
3 ch
coq

Why the eye confuses cop with coq

A purely visual mix-up. cop (\kɔp\) and coq (\kɔk\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - p in “cop” becomes q in “coq”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26374, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cop is recorded at frequency rank #17,394, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔp\. coq is at rank #8,980, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔk\.

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 26374, this pair ranks #335,395 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cop vs coq

Shared letters: co. Private to "cop": p. Private to "coq": q.

"cop" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "coq" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cop" for "coq" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔp\ versus \kɔk\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cop" vs "coq" - which ranks higher?
"coq" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,980 in our French list, against #17,394 for "cop". 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 "cop" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coq" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #335,395 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cop" and "coq" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cop vs coupa". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #335,395 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