corsvscoupTell them apart

Which to use

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

#31,423
“cors” frequency rank
#226
“coup” frequency rank
31649
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cors coup
Definition Pluriel de cor. Impression que fait un corps sur un autre en le frappant.

Where the eye mixes cors and coup

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cors
4 ch
coup

Visual trap between cors and coup

A purely visual mix-up. cors (\kɔʁ\) and coup (\ku\) 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 31649, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cors is recorded at frequency rank #31,423, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔʁ\. coup is at rank #226, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ku\.

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 31649, this pair ranks #302,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cors vs coup

Shared letters: co. Private to "cors": rs. Private to "coup": pu.

"cors" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "coup" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • corsccors · corrs · cosr · ocrs
  • coupccoup · copu · coupp · cuop · ocup

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cors" and "coup" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔʁ\ versus \ku\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "cors" or "coup" show up more?
"coup" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #226 in our French list, against #31,423 for "cors". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cors" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #302,479 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cors" and "coup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs cors". 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 #302,479 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