Which to use
“cork” is a noun and “cornu” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #46,088
- “cork” frequency rank
- #34,963
- “cornu” frequency rank
- 81051
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cork | cornu |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Saut composé d'une rotation faisant passer la planche par dessus la tête. | Qui a des cornes. |
Where the eye mixes cork and cornu
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cork runs 4 letters (CVCC) against cornu's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between cork and cornu
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cork is \kɔʁk\ while cornu is \kɔʁ.ny\. 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 81051, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cork is recorded at frequency rank #46,088, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁk\. cornu is at rank #34,963, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kɔʁ.ny\.
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 81051, this pair ranks #19,569 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cork vs cornu
Shared letters: cor. Private to "cork": k. Private to "cornu": nu.
"cork" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "cornu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cork" for "cornu" ever safe?
Which is more common, "cork" or "cornu"?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cork" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cornu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #19,569 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cork" and "cornu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs cork". 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 #19,569 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.