coursiersvscourtierTell them apart

Which to use

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

#40,697
“coursiers” frequency rank
#13,150
“courtier” frequency rank
53847
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coursiers courtier
Definition Pluriel de coursier. Mandataire (attention, pas au sens où le droit commercial l’entend) qui, moyennant une prime, s’entremet pour la vente ou l’achat de certaines marchandises, ou pour les affrètements, les assurances, etc.

Where the eye mixes coursiers and courtier

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. coursiers runs 9 letters (CVVCCVVCC) against courtier's 8 (CVVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
coursiers
8 ch
courtier

Visual trap between coursiers and courtier

A purely visual mix-up. coursiers (\kuʁ.sje\) and courtier (\kuʁ.tje\) 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 53847, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coursiers is recorded at frequency rank #40,697, classified as anoun, pronounced \kuʁ.sje\. courtier is at rank #13,150, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kuʁ.tje\.

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 53847, this pair ranks #137,997 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coursiers vs courtier

Shared letters: ceioru. Private to "coursiers": s. Private to "courtier": t.

"coursiers" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCC  ·  "courtier" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coursiersccoursiers · corusiers · courisers · courrsiers · courseirs · coursierrs · coursierss · coursiesr
  • courtierccourtier · corutier · couriter · courrtier · courteir · courtierr · courtire · courttier

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coursiers" and "courtier" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\kuʁ.sje\ versus \kuʁ.tje\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "coursiers" or "courtier" show up more?
"courtier" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,150 in our French list, against #40,697 for "coursiers". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coursiers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "courtier" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,997 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coursiers" and "courtier" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Courier vs coursiers". 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 #137,997 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