Which to use
“corpus” and “cous” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #11,554
- “corpus” frequency rank
- #38,734
- “cous” frequency rank
- 50288
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | corpus | cous |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Recueil de pièces, de documents concernant une même matière, les mêmes règles. | Pierre à aiguiser utilisée par les faucheurs. |
Where the eye mixes corpus and cous
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses corpus with cous
A purely visual mix-up. corpus (\kɔʁ.pys\) and cous (\kus\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50288, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
corpus is recorded at frequency rank #11,554, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁ.pys\. cous is at rank #38,734, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kus\.
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 50288, this pair ranks #163,849 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of corpus vs cous
Shared letters: cosu. Private to "corpus": pr. Private to "cous": -.
"corpus" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "cous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "corpus" and "cous" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "corpus" or "cous" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "corpus" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cous" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #163,849 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "corpus" and "cous" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coupa vs cous". 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 #163,849 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.