Which to use
“costumes” and “coutumes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #6,598
- “costumes” frequency rank
- #10,849
- “coutumes” frequency rank
- 17447
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | costumes | coutumes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de costume. | Pluriel de coutume. |
Where the eye mixes costumes and coutumes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses costumes with coutumes
A purely visual mix-up. costumes (\kɔs.tym\) and coutumes (\ku.tym\) 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 a single letter - s in “costumes” becomes u in “coutumes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17447, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
costumes is recorded at frequency rank #6,598, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔs.tym\. coutumes is at rank #10,849, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ku.tym\.
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 17447, this pair ranks #383,126 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of costumes vs coutumes
Shared letters: cemostu. Private to "costumes": -. Private to "coutumes": -.
"costumes" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC · "coutumes" · 8 letters · shape CVVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "costumes" and "coutumes" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "costumes" vs "coutumes" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "costumes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coutumes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #383,126 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "costumes" and "coutumes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coutumes vs coutumiers". 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 #383,126 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.