copyvscupWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#43,360
“copy” frequency rank
#8,225
“cup” frequency rank
51585
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature copy cup
Definition Copie. Cup menstruelle.

Where the eye mixes copy and cup

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

4 ch
copy
3 ch
cup

Visual trap between copy and cup

A purely visual mix-up. copy (\ˈkɒp.i\) and cup (\kœp\) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51585, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

copy is recorded at frequency rank #43,360, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɒp.i\. cup is at rank #8,225, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kœp\.

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 51585, this pair ranks #153,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of copy vs cup

Shared letters: cp. Private to "copy": oy. Private to "cup": u.

"copy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cup" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • copyccopy · coppy · copyy · coyp · cpoy · ocpy

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "copy" and "cup" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈkɒp.i\ versus \kœp\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "copy" vs "cup" - which ranks higher?
"cup" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,225 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.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "copy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #153,919 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "copy" and "cup" 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 #153,919 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