Which to use
“counter” and “county” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #35,451
- “counter” frequency rank
- #20,408
- “county” frequency rank
- 55859
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | counter | county |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Guichet. | Comté. |
Where the eye mixes counter and county
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between counter and county
A purely visual mix-up. counter (\ˈkaʊn.tə(ɹ)\) and county (\ˈkaʊn.ti\) 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 55859, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
counter is recorded at frequency rank #35,451, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈkaʊn.tə(ɹ)\. county is at rank #20,408, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ˈkaʊn.ti\.
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 55859, this pair ranks #124,754 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of counter vs county
Shared letters: cnotu. Private to "counter": er. Private to "county": y.
"counter" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC · "county" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "counter" and "county" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "counter" vs "county" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "counter" and "county" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "counter" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "county" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #124,754 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "counter" and "county" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "count vs counter". 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 #124,754 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.