cortevscoyoteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#27,386
“corte” frequency rank
#27,024
“coyote” frequency rank
54410
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature corte coyote
Definition Cour. Mammifère carnivore de la famille des canidés (Canis latrans), originaire d’Amérique du Nord, qui ressemble à un petit loup.

Where the eye mixes corte and coyote

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. corte runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against coyote's 6 (CVVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
corte
6 ch
coyote

Visual trap between corte and coyote

A purely visual mix-up. corte (\ˈkɔr.te\) and coyote (\kɔ.jɔt\) 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 54410, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

corte is recorded at frequency rank #27,386, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɔr.te\. coyote is at rank #27,024, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.jɔt\.

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 54410, this pair ranks #134,226 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of corte vs coyote

Shared letters: ceot. Private to "corte": r. Private to "coyote": y.

"corte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "coyote" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • corte ← ccorte · coret · corrte · cotre · ocrte
  • coyote ← ccoyote · cooyte · coyoet · coyotte · coytoe · coyyote · cyoote · ocyote

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "corte" and "coyote" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\ˈkɔr.te\ versus \kɔ.jɔt\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "corte" vs "coyote" - which ranks higher?
"coyote" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,024 in our French list, against #27,386 for "corte". 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 "corte" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coyote" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #134,226 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "corte" and "coyote" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conde vs corte". 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 #134,226 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