Which to use
“course” and “cure” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,059
- “course” frequency rank
- #7,048
- “cure” frequency rank
- 8107
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | course | cure |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Action de courir, mouvement de celui qui court. | Soin, souci. — En ce sens, il est surtout usité dans l’expression : n’avoir cure. |
Where the eye mixes course and cure
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses course with cure
A purely visual mix-up. course (\kuʁs\) and cure (\kyʁ\) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8107, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
course is recorded at frequency rank #1,059, classified as anoun, pronounced \kuʁs\. cure is at rank #7,048, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kyʁ\.
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 8107, this pair ranks #421,110 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of course vs cure
Shared letters: ceru. Private to "course": os. Private to "cure": -.
"course" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV · "cure" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "course" for "cure" ever safe?
Frequency check: "course" vs "cure" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "course" and "cure" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "course" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cure" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #421,110 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "course" and "cure" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "curage vs cure". 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 #421,110 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.