Which to use
“Cousin” is a name and “coussin” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #3,324
- “Cousin” frequency rank
- #14,649
- “coussin” frequency rank
- 17973
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | Cousin | coussin |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Rivière française, affluent de la Cure, sous-affluent de l’Yonne. | 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 Cousin and coussin
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses Cousin with coussin
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Cousin is \ku.zɛ̃\ while coussin is \ku.sɛ̃\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
Cousin is recorded at frequency rank #3,324, classified as aname, pronounced \ku.zɛ̃\. 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 17973, this pair ranks #380,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of Cousin vs coussin
Shared letters: cinosu. Private to "Cousin": -. Private to "coussin": -.
"Cousin" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "coussin" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "Cousin" and "coussin" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary French text, does "Cousin" or "coussin" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "Cousin" 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 #380,593 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "Cousin" and "coussin" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "courson vs coussin". 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 #380,593 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.