cornuvscousuWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#34,963
“cornu” frequency rank
#30,963
“cousu” frequency rank
65926
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cornu cousu
Definition Qui a des cornes. Lié par une couture.

Where the eye mixes cornu and cousu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cornu
5 ch
cousu

Look-alike desk: cornu vs cousu

A purely visual mix-up. cornu (\kɔʁ.ny\) and cousu (\ku.zy\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cornu is recorded at frequency rank #34,963, classified as anadj, pronounced \kɔʁ.ny\. cousu is at rank #30,963, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ku.zy\.

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 65926, this pair ranks #70,133 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cornu vs cousu

Shared letters: cou. Private to "cornu": nr. Private to "cousu": s.

"cornu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cousu" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cornuccornu · conru · cornnu · corrnu · corun · cronu · ocrnu
  • cousuccousu · cosuu · coussu · couus · cuosu · ocusu

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cornu" and "cousu" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\kɔʁ.ny\ versus \ku.zy\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cornu" or "cousu"?
"cousu" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,963 in our French list, against #34,963 for "cornu". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cornu" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cousu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,133 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cornu" and "cousu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coon vs cornu". 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 #70,133 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