Which to use
“courge” and “cousue” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #30,546
- “courge” frequency rank
- #39,728
- “cousue” frequency rank
- 70274
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | courge | cousue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Genre de plantes de la famille des Cucurbitacées (Cucurbitaceae). | Cigarette industrielle, déjà roulée, par opposition à celle que l’on roule soi-même. |
Where the eye mixes courge and cousue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. courge (CVVCCV) and cousue (CVVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between courge and cousue
A purely visual mix-up. courge (\kuʁʒ\) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70274, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
courge is recorded at frequency rank #30,546, classified as anoun, pronounced \kuʁʒ\. 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 70274, this pair ranks #51,975 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of courge vs cousue
Shared letters: ceou. Private to "courge": gr. Private to "cousue": s.
"courge" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "cousue" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "courge" for "cousue" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "courge" or "cousue" show up more?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "courge" 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 #51,975 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "courge" 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 #51,975 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.