Which to use
“cosse” and “cotte” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,195
- “cosse” frequency rank
- #43,365
- “cotte” frequency rank
- 76560
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cosse | cotte |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Enveloppe de la graine, gousse, écorce. | Jupe. |
Where the eye mixes cosse and cotte
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cosse and cotte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses cosse with cotte
A purely visual mix-up. cosse (\kɔs\) and cotte (\kɔt\) 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 76560, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cosse is recorded at frequency rank #33,195, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔs\. cotte is at rank #43,365, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔt\.
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 76560, this pair ranks #30,783 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cosse vs cotte
Shared letters: ceo. Private to "cosse": s. Private to "cotte": t.
"cosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "cotte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cosse" for "cotte" ever safe?
Which is more common, "cosse" or "cotte"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "cosse" and "cotte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cosse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cotte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #30,783 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cosse" and "cotte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cosette vs cotte". 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 #30,783 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.