coursiersvscourtiersWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,697
“coursiers” frequency rank
#19,796
“courtiers” frequency rank
60493
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coursiers courtiers
Definition Pluriel de coursier. Pluriel de courtier.

Where the eye mixes coursiers and courtiers

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. coursiers and courtiers follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCVVCC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
coursiers
9 ch
courtiers

Look-alike desk: coursiers vs courtiers

A purely visual mix-up. coursiers (\kuʁ.sje\) and courtiers (\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 a single letter - s in “coursiers” becomes t in “courtiers”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60493, 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\. courtiers is at rank #19,796, 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 60493, this pair ranks #97,305 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of coursiers vs courtiers

Shared letters: ceiorsu. Private to "coursiers": -. Private to "courtiers": t.

"coursiers" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCC  ·  "courtiers" · 9 letters · shape CVVCCVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coursiersccoursiers · corusiers · courisers · courrsiers · courseirs · coursierrs · coursierss · coursiesr
  • courtiersccourtiers · corutiers · couriters · courrtiers · courteirs · courtierrs · courtierss · courtiesr

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coursiers" and "courtiers" 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.
Frequency check: "coursiers" vs "courtiers" - which ranks higher?
"courtiers" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,796 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.

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 "coursiers" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "courtiers" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #97,305 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coursiers" and "courtiers" 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 #97,305 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