coursonvscoussinConfusable pair

Quick tell: courson is a adjective, coussin is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“courson” is an adjective and “coussin” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,266
“courson” frequency rank
#14,649
“coussin” frequency rank
61915
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature courson coussin
Definition Taillé court, raccourci. Sorte de sac cousu de tous les côtés composé de tissu ou de cuir et rempli de plume, de bourre ou de crin, etc., pour s’appuyer, pour s’asseoir, pour poser les pieds ou bien simplement pour décorer.

Where the eye mixes courson and coussin

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

7 ch
courson
7 ch
coussin

Visual trap between courson and coussin

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: courson is \kuʁ.sɔ̃\ while coussin is \ku.sɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61915, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

courson is recorded at frequency rank #47,266, classified as anadj, pronounced \kuʁ.sɔ̃\. coussin is at rank #14,649, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ku.sɛ̃\.

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 61915, this pair ranks #89,772 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of courson vs coussin

Shared letters: cnosu. Private to "courson": r. Private to "coussin": i.

"courson" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "coussin" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coursonccourson · coruson · courosn · courrson · coursno · coursonn · coursson · cousron
  • coussinccoussin · cosusin · coussinn · coussni · cuossin · ocussin

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "courson" and "coussin" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "courson" is an adjective and "coussin" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "courson" vs "coussin" - which ranks higher?
"coussin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,649 in our French list, against #47,266 for "courson". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "courson" and "coussin" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "courson" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coussin" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #89,772 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "courson" and "coussin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Coulon vs courson". 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 #89,772 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