Which to use
“cous” and “culs” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #38,734
- “cous” frequency rank
- #12,545
- “culs” frequency rank
- 51279
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cous | culs |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pierre à aiguiser utilisée par les faucheurs. | Pluriel de cul. |
Where the eye mixes cous and culs
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cous with culs
A purely visual mix-up. cous (\kus\) and culs (\ky\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51279, 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\. culs is at rank #12,545, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ky\.
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 51279, this pair ranks #156,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cous vs culs
Shared letters: csu. Private to "cous": o. Private to "culs": l.
"cous" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "culs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cous" and "culs" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cous" or "culs"?
After this comparison
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 "culs" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #156,227 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cous" and "culs" 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 #156,227 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.