courrevscoutureWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: courre is a verb, couture is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“courre” is a verb and “couture” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,733
“courre” frequency rank
#8,088
“couture” frequency rank
46821
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature courre couture
Definition Forme ancienne de courir jusqu’au XIIIᵉ siècle. Action, art de coudre.

Where the eye mixes courre and couture

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
courre
7 ch
couture

Visual trap between courre and couture

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: courre is \kuʁ\ while couture is \ku.tyʁ\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46821, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

courre is recorded at frequency rank #38,733, classified as averb, pronounced \kuʁ\. couture is at rank #8,088, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ku.tyʁ\.

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 46821, this pair ranks #191,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of courre vs couture

Shared letters: ceoru. Private to "courre": -. Private to "couture": t.

"courre" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "couture" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • courreccourre · corure · coure · courer · cuorre · ocurre
  • coutureccouture · cotuure · coutrue · coutture · coutuer · couturre · couutre · cuoture

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "courre" and "couture" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "courre" is a verb and "couture" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "courre" vs "couture" - which ranks higher?
"couture" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,088 in our French list, against #38,733 for "courre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "courre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "couture" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #191,811 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "courre" and "couture" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courges vs courre". 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 #191,811 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