cosavscscWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,679
“cosa” frequency rank
#27,392
“csc” frequency rank
74071
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cosa csc
Definition Variante du IXᵉ siècle de chose. But contre son camp.

Where the eye mixes cosa and csc

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cosa runs 4 letters (CVCV) against csc's 3 (CCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
cosa
3 ch
csc

Visual trap between cosa and csc

A purely visual mix-up. cosa (\ˈkɔza ~ˈkɔzə\) and csc (\se.ɛs.se\) 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 74071, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cosa is recorded at frequency rank #46,679, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈkɔza ~ˈkɔzə\. csc is at rank #27,392, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se.ɛs.se\.

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 74071, this pair ranks #38,361 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cosa vs csc

Shared letters: cs. Private to "cosa": ao. Private to "csc": -.

"cosa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "csc" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cosa ← ccosa · coas · cossa · csoa · ocsa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cosa" for "csc" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (\ˈkɔza ~ˈkɔzə\ versus \se.ɛs.se\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "cosa" or "csc" show up more?
"csc" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,392 in our French list, against #46,679 for "cosa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cosa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "csc" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,361 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cosa" and "csc" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cosa vs coupa". 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 #38,361 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