CouriervscoursierConfusable pair

Quick tell: Courier is a name, coursier is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Courier” is a name and “coursier” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#40,201
“Courier” frequency rank
#31,906
“coursier” frequency rank
72107
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Courier coursier
Definition Nom d’une police à chasse fixe (monospace) rappelant une machine à écrire, et dont les empattements sont conçus pour éviter toute confusion entre deux caractères. Qui concerne les courses, les achats dans les magasins.

Letter map: Courier vs coursier

Shared letters muted; letters that set Courier and coursier apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. Courier runs 7 letters (CVVCVVC) against coursier's 8 (CVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
Courier
8 ch
coursier

Grammar separator: Courier vs coursier

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: Courier is aname and coursieranadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72107, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Courier is recorded at frequency rank #40,201, classified as aname. coursier is at rank #31,906, tagged as anadj, pronounced \kuʁ.sje\.

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 72107, this pair ranks #45,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Courier vs coursier

Shared letters: ceioru. Private to "Courier": -. Private to "coursier": s.

"Courier" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVVC  ·  "coursier" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Courier ← ccourier · coruier · couirer · coureir · courierr · courire · cuorier · ocurier
  • coursier ← ccoursier · corusier · couriser · courrsier · courseir · coursierr · coursire · courssier

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Courier" for "coursier" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Courier" is a name and "coursier" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "Courier" or "coursier" show up more?
"coursier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,906 in our French list, against #40,201 for "Courier". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "Courier" vs "coursier" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Courier" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coursier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,176 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Courier" and "coursier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courges vs Courier". 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 #45,176 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list