cordesvscorpsWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,282
“cordes” frequency rank
#369
“corps” frequency rank
6651
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cordes corps
Definition Pluriel de corde. Portion de matière qui forme un tout individuel et distinct.

Where the eye mixes cordes and corps

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
cordes
5 ch
corps

Look-alike desk: cordes vs corps

A purely visual mix-up. cordes (\kɔʁd\) and corps (\kɔʁ\) 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 6651, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cordes is recorded at frequency rank #6,282, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁd\. corps is at rank #369, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁ\.

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 6651, this pair ranks #425,629 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cordes vs corps

Shared letters: cors. Private to "cordes": de. Private to "corps": p.

"cordes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "corps" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cordesccordes · codres · corddes · cordess · cordse · coreds · corrdes · crodes
  • corpsccorps · coprs · corpps · corpss · corrps · corsp · crops · ocrps

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cordes" for "corps" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\kɔʁd\ versus \kɔʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cordes" or "corps"?
"corps" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #369 in our French list, against #6,282 for "cordes". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "cordes" and "corps" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cordes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "corps" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #425,629 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cordes" and "corps" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cordes vs courges". 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 #425,629 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