cordesvscoursesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#6,282
“cordes” frequency rank
#2,568
“courses” frequency rank
8850
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cordes courses
Definition Pluriel de corde. Pluriel de course.

Where the eye mixes cordes and courses

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
cordes
7 ch
courses

Visual trap between cordes and courses

A purely visual mix-up. cordes (\kɔʁd\) and courses (\kuʁs\) 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 8850, 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\. courses is at rank #2,568, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kuʁs\.

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 8850, this pair ranks #418,668 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cordes vs courses

Shared letters: ceors. Private to "cordes": d. Private to "courses": u.

"cordes" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "courses" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cordesccordes · codres · corddes · cordess · cordse · coreds · corrdes · crodes
  • coursesccourses · coruses · couress · courrses · coursess · coursses · cousres · cuorses

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cordes" and "courses" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔʁd\ versus \kuʁs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cordes" vs "courses" - which ranks higher?
"courses" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,568 in our French list, against #6,282 for "cordes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "cordes" and "courses" 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 "courses" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #418,668 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cordes" and "courses" 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 #418,668 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