Which to use
“corps” and “corpus” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #369
- “corps” frequency rank
- #11,554
- “corpus” frequency rank
- 11923
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | corps | corpus |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Portion de matière qui forme un tout individuel et distinct. | Recueil de pièces, de documents concernant une même matière, les mêmes règles. |
Where the eye mixes corps and corpus
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses corps with corpus
A purely visual mix-up. corps (\kɔʁ\) and corpus (\kɔʁ.pys\) 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 11923, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
corps is recorded at frequency rank #369, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁ\. corpus is at rank #11,554, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁ.pys\.
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 11923, this pair ranks #407,253 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of corps vs corpus
Shared letters: coprs. Private to "corps": -. Private to "corpus": u.
"corps" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC · "corpus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "corps" for "corpus" ever safe?
Which is more common, "corps" or "corpus"?
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 "corps" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "corpus" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #407,253 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "corps" and "corpus" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "compos vs corpus". 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 #407,253 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.