Which to use
“cous” and “cousue” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,734
- “cous” frequency rank
- #39,728
- “cousue” frequency rank
- 78462
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cous | cousue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pierre à aiguiser utilisée par les faucheurs. | Cigarette industrielle, déjà roulée, par opposition à celle que l’on roule soi-même. |
Where the eye mixes cous and cousue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cous runs 4 letters (CVVC) against cousue's 6 (CVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses cous with cousue
A purely visual mix-up. cous (\kus\) and cousue (\ku.zy\) 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 extra letter(s) - “cous” sits inside “cousue”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78462, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cous is recorded at frequency rank #38,734, classified as anoun, pronounced \kus\. cousue is at rank #39,728, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ku.zy\.
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 78462, this pair ranks #25,669 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cous vs cousue
Shared letters: cosu. Private to "cous": -. Private to "cousue": e.
"cous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "cousue" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cous" and "cousue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "cous" vs "cousue" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cous" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cousue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #25,669 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cous" and "cousue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coupa vs cous". 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 #25,669 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.