cour vs CSR, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#669
“cour” frequency rank: #45,537
“CSR” frequency rank: 46206
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cour	CSR
Definition	Espace découvert qui dépend d’une maison, d’un hôtel, etc., et qui est entouré de murs ou de bâtiments.	Demande de signature de certificat : message envoyé à partir d'un demandeur à une autorité de certification afin de demander un certificat d'identité numérique.

Where the eye mixes cour and CSR

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cour runs 4 letters (CVVC) against CSR's 3 (CCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch

cour

3 ch

CSR

Why the eye confuses cour with CSR

A purely visual mix-up. cour (\kuʁ\) and CSR (\se.ɛs.ɛʁ\) 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 46206, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cour is recorded at frequency rank #669, classified as anoun, pronounced \kuʁ\. CSR is at rank #45,537, tagged as anoun, pronounced \se.ɛs.ɛʁ\.

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 46206, this pair ranks #196,776 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cour vs CSR

Shared letters: cr. Private to "cour": ou. Private to "CSR": s.

"cour" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "CSR" · 3 letters · shape CCC

Known mistypes of this pair

cour ← ccour · coru · courr · cuor · ocur

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cour" for "CSR" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (\kuʁ\ versus \se.ɛs.ɛʁ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Frequency check: "cour" vs "CSR" - which ranks higher?

"cour" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #669 in our French list, against #45,537 for "CSR". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "cour" and "CSR" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

Full dictionary entry for "cour" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "CSR" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #196,776 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"cour" and "CSR" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciro vs CSR". 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 #196,776 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.