coussinvscoussinsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#14,649
“coussin” frequency rank
#20,103
“coussins” frequency rank
34752
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coussin coussins
Definition 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. Pluriel de coussin.

Same sound, different letters: coussin vs coussins

Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. coussin runs 7 letters (CVVCCVC) against coussins's 8 (CVVCCVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
coussin
8 ch
coussins

Ear matches; page differs - coussin and coussins

This is the hard kind. coussin and coussins are pronounced identically (\ku.sɛ̃\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “coussin” sits inside “coussins”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34752, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coussin is recorded at frequency rank #14,649, classified as anoun, pronounced \ku.sɛ̃\. coussins is at rank #20,103, 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 34752, this pair ranks #281,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coussin vs coussins

Shared letters: cinosu. Private to "coussin": -. Private to "coussins": -.

"coussin" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC  ·  "coussins" · 8 letters · shape CVVCCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coussin ← ccoussin · cosusin · coussinn · coussni · cuossin · ocussin
  • coussins ← ccoussins · cosusins · cousisns · coussinns · coussinss · coussisn · coussnis · cuossins

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "coussin" and "coussins" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are pronounced the same (\ku.sɛ̃\), which is exactly why they get swapped in writing, but the dictionary meanings above are different, and pronunciation is no guide here.
Which is more common, "coussin" or "coussins"?
"coussin" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,649 in our French list, against #20,103 for "coussins". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've separated the homophone pair "coussin" / "coussins". Follow the links when you need the full entry or a neighbour that trips the same ear.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coussin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coussins" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #281,645 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coussin" and "coussins" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coussinets vs coussins". 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 #281,645 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