Which to use
“cosse” and “cousue” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #33,195
- “cosse” frequency rank
- #39,728
- “cousue” frequency rank
- 72923
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cosse | cousue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Enveloppe de la graine, gousse, écorce. | Cigarette industrielle, déjà roulée, par opposition à celle que l’on roule soi-même. |
Where the eye mixes cosse and cousue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cosse runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against cousue's 6 (CVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses cosse with cousue
A purely visual mix-up. cosse (\kɔs\) and cousue (\ku.zy\) 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 72923, 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\. cousue is at rank #39,728, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ku.zy\.
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 72923, this pair ranks #42,332 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cosse vs cousue
Shared letters: ceos. Private to "cosse": -. Private to "cousue": u.
"cosse" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "cousue" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cosse" and "cousue" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "cosse" vs "cousue" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cosse" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cousue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #42,332 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cosse" and "cousue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courus vs cousue". 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 #42,332 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.