cosyvscrossWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,722
“cosy” frequency rank
#8,369
“cross” frequency rank
50091
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cosy cross
Definition Enveloppe fourrée, généralement en tissu ouatiné, dont on couvre une théière, un plat ou un œuf, pour en conserver la chaleur. Sorte de course à pied hors route.

Where the eye mixes cosy and cross

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cosy
5 ch
cross

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. cosy (\kɔ.zi\) and cross (\kʁɔs\) 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 50091, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cosy is recorded at frequency rank #41,722, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ.zi\. cross is at rank #8,369, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kʁɔs\.

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 50091, this pair ranks #165,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cosy vs cross

Shared letters: cos. Private to "cosy": y. Private to "cross": r.

"cosy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cross" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cosyccosy · cossy · cosyy · coys · csoy · ocsy
  • crossccross · corss · crross · crsos · rcoss

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cosy" and "cross" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kɔ.zi\ versus \kʁɔs\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cosy" or "cross"?
"cross" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,369 in our French list, against #41,722 for "cosy". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "cosy" and "cross". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cosy" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cross" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #165,387 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cosy" and "cross" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coon vs cosy". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list